I have come across an article on Wednesday August 18, 2010 in The Star Newspaper with a title: "Let’s stop tip-toeing around" by MARINA MAHATHIR
Abandoning babies in Malaysia seemed to be newly stigma. I have been to overseas for 2 years to finish my undergraduate study and I have seen many single mothers everywhere in that country, young and mid-age, pushing a pram to every section of the city. Through newspapers and also news report in TV, I have never heard that mothers throwing away their babies by the roadside, or by the river or anywhere before for the past 2 years at least. These single mothers are taking good care of their own child whether or not this child is a pregnancy outside of wed-lock. And why I always heard abandon babies everywhere in Malaysia?
I was really pissed off when I come across the news stating that parents to the abandon babies will be sentenced to death as they attempt killing. Have this people think before they set up this rule? They will give people who abandon their babies a death sentence, where else the real murderer or people to really have killed someone life only sentenced for 7 years?? What is wrong with this people who fixed this idiotic rules? Have they used the brain that created by our greatest god? Do you think it should be the other way round???
I cant agree more on what Marina Mahathir has written in The Star newspaper. Young girls pregnancy is hardship and full with confusion, help is hard to come by.
Who will help these young mothers?
What if their pregnancy isnt what they asked for?
Are we just close one eyes and give them a death sentence?
Are we fair and just without asking or knowing the truth how this happen?
Are the life of these young mothers isnt a life at all, while we sentence them without finding the other person who makes this pregnancy happens?
Have you put yourself in the shoe of these young mothers?
Fellow Malaysians, we are well known for the most develop 3rd world country besides Singapore and we are celebrating 53rd Independence Day. But why our thinking and mindset are just never mature and treat this problem as a problem and solve it in a delegate way?
Just have a think about it... Is this rule fair and just, death sentence to parents outside-wedlock but 7 years jail sentence to a murderer?
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Penang... What a place to be...
Batu Ferringhi~~
Batu Ferringhi is a tourist attraction. The road is winding but the view is superb. However, the place is kinda eerie at night, no street lights, steep cliff and lonely road. There is 1 case, one of the night, there are 2 person riding a motorbike along the batu ferringhi road, then suddenly they saw another motorbike which has 2 person riding on it ride pass them and they think that is impossible for the motorbike to overtake them because the motorbike is a old honda motorbike. So what they did is they try to chase that bike as it has gone quite further away of them. Suddenly the rider had been hit on the head by his friend behind as his friend shouted "wei....its a corner...faster turn.." Luckily the rider make a sharp turn accordingly. After the inciden, his friend only knew that the rider only saw a straight road ahead while chasing that old honda motorbike and didnt realise that it is a sharp corner
Balik Pulau new road~~
Balik pulau is a small town that been surround by mountain, usually for those who wanna go to balik pulau, one need to take a mountain road which is less winding than Genting/Cameron road.
Hence the story goes...
My friend's uncle was driving using the Balik Pulau new road(less winding compare to the old road and also faster). While he was driving, he suddenly feel like finger was touching his shoulder and pull his shirt as if something was calling my friend's uncle. My friend's uncle felt weird and used his hand to brush his shoulder and pull his shirt properly again. Apparently, he thought that was some tree branch that flew into the car and stuck on his shirt. But then he thought was not possible for the branch to flew in as he never wind down the window. So, he brushed that thought away and continued driving. After a short while he felt the same thing again and he dare not to turn back to see. Therefore, he used the rear-mirror to see what's behind, however he saw nothing. So he did the same thing again, as in using his hand to pull his shirt. After that he overtook a lorry in front of him and there were no more pulling until he reached home. He told us when he got home and all of us agree that if he really turn back and see what behind, something bad might happen to him because we think that the pulling is to lure him to look behind
Batu Ferringhi is a tourist attraction. The road is winding but the view is superb. However, the place is kinda eerie at night, no street lights, steep cliff and lonely road. There is 1 case, one of the night, there are 2 person riding a motorbike along the batu ferringhi road, then suddenly they saw another motorbike which has 2 person riding on it ride pass them and they think that is impossible for the motorbike to overtake them because the motorbike is a old honda motorbike. So what they did is they try to chase that bike as it has gone quite further away of them. Suddenly the rider had been hit on the head by his friend behind as his friend shouted "wei....its a corner...faster turn.." Luckily the rider make a sharp turn accordingly. After the inciden, his friend only knew that the rider only saw a straight road ahead while chasing that old honda motorbike and didnt realise that it is a sharp corner
Balik Pulau new road~~
Balik pulau is a small town that been surround by mountain, usually for those who wanna go to balik pulau, one need to take a mountain road which is less winding than Genting/Cameron road.
Hence the story goes...
My friend's uncle was driving using the Balik Pulau new road(less winding compare to the old road and also faster). While he was driving, he suddenly feel like finger was touching his shoulder and pull his shirt as if something was calling my friend's uncle. My friend's uncle felt weird and used his hand to brush his shoulder and pull his shirt properly again. Apparently, he thought that was some tree branch that flew into the car and stuck on his shirt. But then he thought was not possible for the branch to flew in as he never wind down the window. So, he brushed that thought away and continued driving. After a short while he felt the same thing again and he dare not to turn back to see. Therefore, he used the rear-mirror to see what's behind, however he saw nothing. So he did the same thing again, as in using his hand to pull his shirt. After that he overtook a lorry in front of him and there were no more pulling until he reached home. He told us when he got home and all of us agree that if he really turn back and see what behind, something bad might happen to him because we think that the pulling is to lure him to look behind
Errie side of Genting
Kuala Lumpur - Genting Highlands Resort
A famous hill-top resort and casino. Many people incurred gambling debts and committed suicide here. Some visitors leaving the hotel lobby reported seeing a man in red jump from the rooftop, just to disappear before he hits the ground.
Certain rooms are not available for rent no matter how full the hotel was those who have seen the inside reported that it was filled with old Chinese ghost wards. They would subsequently fall sick for days afterwards
Ria Apartment Genting Ghost Story
We were all supposed to be having a time of our lives until my friend, James saw something extraordinary. It happened in the afternoon when all the four of us guys decided to play the game of Mahjong. However, being the 5 of us, another of our friend, Andy thought that he was hungry and decided to cook up something to eat.
As we started our game, Andy walked into the kitchen and start preparing for his lunch. After everyone of us prepared the tiles on the table, James thought of looking for Andy to ask him to prepare another set of lunch for him and went to the kitchen to look for him.
From the mahjong table where I was sitting, I could see James standing in front of the kitchen. After a minute or so, James walked towards the table all looking startled and pale. We asked if he was alright but James just nod and sat down like a stone, eyes looking distant. After a while, James spoke and told us what he saw.
He was about to walk into the kitchen and call Andy when something caught his eye. Without any warning, he saw a ghost sitting on top of the fridge staring fiercely at Andy. James was stunned and could not move and the ghost just kept on staring and staring at Andy. After when reality kicked in only James could feel his feet bringing himself back to the mahjong table. As soon as we all heard his story, we kept quiet and decided to continue the game as if nothing happened. As for Andy, he was still in the kitchen preparing his lunch.
A famous hill-top resort and casino. Many people incurred gambling debts and committed suicide here. Some visitors leaving the hotel lobby reported seeing a man in red jump from the rooftop, just to disappear before he hits the ground.
Certain rooms are not available for rent no matter how full the hotel was those who have seen the inside reported that it was filled with old Chinese ghost wards. They would subsequently fall sick for days afterwards
Ria Apartment Genting Ghost Story
We were all supposed to be having a time of our lives until my friend, James saw something extraordinary. It happened in the afternoon when all the four of us guys decided to play the game of Mahjong. However, being the 5 of us, another of our friend, Andy thought that he was hungry and decided to cook up something to eat.
As we started our game, Andy walked into the kitchen and start preparing for his lunch. After everyone of us prepared the tiles on the table, James thought of looking for Andy to ask him to prepare another set of lunch for him and went to the kitchen to look for him.
From the mahjong table where I was sitting, I could see James standing in front of the kitchen. After a minute or so, James walked towards the table all looking startled and pale. We asked if he was alright but James just nod and sat down like a stone, eyes looking distant. After a while, James spoke and told us what he saw.
He was about to walk into the kitchen and call Andy when something caught his eye. Without any warning, he saw a ghost sitting on top of the fridge staring fiercely at Andy. James was stunned and could not move and the ghost just kept on staring and staring at Andy. After when reality kicked in only James could feel his feet bringing himself back to the mahjong table. As soon as we all heard his story, we kept quiet and decided to continue the game as if nothing happened. As for Andy, he was still in the kitchen preparing his lunch.
Ghost stories from various parts of South Australia
Adelaide - Norwood - The old Norwood primary school - people believe that once a grounds man who hung himself in a classroom. It’s made out to believe that the lights at night flash on and off Fade in and out. If you were to look at the window you would see a white shadow moving side to side staring you in the eyes. It’s also set to believe that the body of Grounds keeper Brown was buried at the school. Keeper Brown killed himself on March 29th 1940 and on every March 29th he appears around the whole school and protects himself and his grounds from any moving object within the 100 meter radius.
Barossa Valley - Seppeltsfield Winery - built in the early 1800s by Oscar Benno Seppelt who is said to have turned slightly insane after spending hours confined in his private retreat located behind the trophy cellar. If you go on one of their ghost tours held in the summer months you feel as if you are being watched all the time. Walking through the barrel tunnel you can hear loud footsteps above you but there is no floor. after 7 pm the lights will not turn on in the lower levels. the ghostly apparition of a made is said to haunt the homestead and tunnels. If you walk past the distillery and other cellars you can hear screaming in the vineyards and see glowing in the top tower of the distillery. whilst walking past the Vinegar factory you can hear the machines working and wheels cranking and the sounds of steam blasts, but the factory has been locked for over 150 years. during the tours you can go into Oscars retreat which is so small it can only fit a maximum of 4-5 people who even have to bow their heads to walk in. in the Mausoleum of the Seppelt family you can see the eerie bloodstain on the walls that is still wet on the anniversary of their deaths. due to this the Mausoleum was locked and bolted shut in the late 20th century. Moans and whispering can be heard in the dinning hall, which you can hire for functions. and staff and tourists in the garden have heard rifle shots. These ghost tours are not for the faint hearted and no tapes or projectors or computers are used at all. not recommended for children under 10 year old but there are tours during the day. Walk through the gardens as you hear stories of near death experiences and listen to the screams and shots through the air. many tourists have told of cold spots and being pushed by invisible forces. others have told of feeling depressed near the gardens and even being frightened into screaming fits.
Kapunda - Cemetery - Kapunda is a mining town just 2 hours from Adelaide. It is an old mining town. A young girl haunts the local cemetery there. She was sent there to the nuns as she was pregnant and unmarried. The local priest gave her an abortion and still to this day she haunts the local cemetery searching for her baby.
Meningie - Local farms - doors slamming floors creaking voices music things moving.
Barossa Valley - Seppeltsfield Winery - built in the early 1800s by Oscar Benno Seppelt who is said to have turned slightly insane after spending hours confined in his private retreat located behind the trophy cellar. If you go on one of their ghost tours held in the summer months you feel as if you are being watched all the time. Walking through the barrel tunnel you can hear loud footsteps above you but there is no floor. after 7 pm the lights will not turn on in the lower levels. the ghostly apparition of a made is said to haunt the homestead and tunnels. If you walk past the distillery and other cellars you can hear screaming in the vineyards and see glowing in the top tower of the distillery. whilst walking past the Vinegar factory you can hear the machines working and wheels cranking and the sounds of steam blasts, but the factory has been locked for over 150 years. during the tours you can go into Oscars retreat which is so small it can only fit a maximum of 4-5 people who even have to bow their heads to walk in. in the Mausoleum of the Seppelt family you can see the eerie bloodstain on the walls that is still wet on the anniversary of their deaths. due to this the Mausoleum was locked and bolted shut in the late 20th century. Moans and whispering can be heard in the dinning hall, which you can hire for functions. and staff and tourists in the garden have heard rifle shots. These ghost tours are not for the faint hearted and no tapes or projectors or computers are used at all. not recommended for children under 10 year old but there are tours during the day. Walk through the gardens as you hear stories of near death experiences and listen to the screams and shots through the air. many tourists have told of cold spots and being pushed by invisible forces. others have told of feeling depressed near the gardens and even being frightened into screaming fits.
Kapunda - Cemetery - Kapunda is a mining town just 2 hours from Adelaide. It is an old mining town. A young girl haunts the local cemetery there. She was sent there to the nuns as she was pregnant and unmarried. The local priest gave her an abortion and still to this day she haunts the local cemetery searching for her baby.
Meningie - Local farms - doors slamming floors creaking voices music things moving.
Unicorns' Adelaide Ghost Tour Review Old Adelaide Gaol & Carclew
The night started out well, with dinner at the Union Hotel in Waymouth Street, Adelaide. There was a group from the Spiritualist church who could sense 4 spirits at the pub. There was a man in uniform who was upstairs (apparently he was the original owner and there have been reported sightings of him) There was a man who had hanged himself in the cellar and also a younger guy who had been crushed. (The tour guide knew nothing of this but someone else confirmed that a man had been crushed to death in the cellar) There was also a lady with a lamp who wandered about the whole pub.
During dinner, I felt intense pressure on my forehead and blinding pain down one side of my face. I asked if anyone had been shot in the head around the area but no-one knew. The freaky thing was that the man sitting opposite me, who I did not know, had exactly the same sensations.
After dinner, we went to the Old Adelaide Gaol.
This was a guided tour, organised by the Gaol Manager and it was very informative and well presented. Our guide told us about the history of the Gaol and strange sightings that have happened since the Gaol was decommissioned. In one set of cells, a light has been seen, where there is no way to switch it on unless you have the key. There have been sightings of a young girl who walks near one of the guard towers and seems to walk through the wall and disappear. Outside the wall in that area, used to be the cottages for the wardens and their families, quite a few of them died due to the effluent from the gaol contaminating the water. There is also a man who is seen in another cell block, walking along the upper walkway.
In one part of the gaol, the last cell near the wall was used for the condemned, the irony was that on the other side of that wall was were they would be buried. I tried twice to take a photo of that cell and my camera wouldn't work, even though it worked fine before and after. In the courtyard of that block, there was a temperature reading of -17 degrees, one person felt really cold in that spot.
We were then taken to the hanging tower, one of 3 places where they executed prisoners. (there was one in another cell block and for a time there were gallows erected outside the gaol for public executions) We entered the tower in darkness, it consisted of 3 rooms, the main with the gallows and trapdoor plus two small rooms on one side that the condemned and the executioner were placed. In one room, my sister and I felt intense sorrow, I felt like crying for no reason, we discovered that it was the room that the executioner used. One of the women from the spiritualist church said that they didn't enjoy what they had to do and the emotions have stayed in that room. Other people could smell alcohol in the prisoner's room and the guide said that quite often they were allowed to have a final drink in there. With the lights on, the tower is a cold and sterile place and your eye is drawn to the beam constantly.
Outside the hanging tower is a grass strip that is between the outer and inner wall of the Gaol, this is were the bodies were buried, the only markings are the condemned's initials and date of execution on the wall. The only time prisoners were allowed in this are was to mow the lawn but even then some managed to carve graffiti on the brickwork of the walls.
We were led throughout the Gaol and shown the other gallows, which was on the upper floor of a 2 story cell block. My sister & I went into one of the condemned cells and felt sick to the stomach and like we were suffocating. 7 people were hanged in that area and they are buried in that blocks courtyard. 45 people were executed between 1862 and 1964, there are 16 unmarked graves and no-one knows were they are.
Construction of the Gaol began in 1840 and it was in use until 1988. Elizabeth Woolcock was the only female in South Australia to be hanged for poisoning her husband.
We finished the tour without incident but I did feel like we were being watched by something in one of the guard towers.
I recommend the Adelaide Gaol tour to anyone, you can go there independent of the tour I was with. It is open weekdays between 11am and 4pm and Sundays between 11am and 3:30pm. Night tours and sleepovers are available for groups of 15 or more. Ring the Gaol manager on 08 8231 4062 for bookings or further information.
After the Gaol we went to Carlcew in North Adelaide, a Gothic mansion built by the Bonython family in the 1800's, now housing the Carclew Art's Program. The disappointment was that we weren't allowed on the grounds, but were told we could visit during the daytime when it's open. Apparently, there is the ghost of a young girl that has been seen by the people, and it is said that Mr Bonython threw his wife from the top window of the tower when she found out he had a mistress, she didn't die, so he dragged her up the stairs and threw her back down. He then either buried the body in the garden or bricked it up in the wall, it's not exactly known.
Your gaze is drawn to the tower windows and of the two photos I took, when developed, one appears to have the outline of a figure walking up to the house, there seems to be an outline of an arm, the side of a dress and a foot.
We were disappointed yet again when we went to a house that is attached to an old Anglican church in Hindmarsh, where the pastor's lived. We weren't allowed in again and were told that PRISM investigated it a few years ago, there have been reported sightings of a young girl and unidentifiable, liquid has been seen pooled on the floor and on the walls. The house is now fully renovated and there was no feeling about the place at all. It is owned by the government and is used for offices.
The final place we saw was a cemetery, but the atmosphere was destroyed by it being flanked on 2 sided by main roads and the traffic and lights were distracting. There have been sightings of a woman in grey with a lamp (why do ghost's need lamps????) but that was all we were told.
All in all the last part of the tour was very ho hum, we were not told beforehand that we couldn't go into those places and personally, it wasn't worth the $56 paid. I would suggest that you get a group of 15, organise a group tour through the Gaol and have a meal at the Union Hotel beforehand. That way, it should only cost you about $20-$25 per person and you get the same satisfaction, without paying for bus hire.
During dinner, I felt intense pressure on my forehead and blinding pain down one side of my face. I asked if anyone had been shot in the head around the area but no-one knew. The freaky thing was that the man sitting opposite me, who I did not know, had exactly the same sensations.
After dinner, we went to the Old Adelaide Gaol.
This was a guided tour, organised by the Gaol Manager and it was very informative and well presented. Our guide told us about the history of the Gaol and strange sightings that have happened since the Gaol was decommissioned. In one set of cells, a light has been seen, where there is no way to switch it on unless you have the key. There have been sightings of a young girl who walks near one of the guard towers and seems to walk through the wall and disappear. Outside the wall in that area, used to be the cottages for the wardens and their families, quite a few of them died due to the effluent from the gaol contaminating the water. There is also a man who is seen in another cell block, walking along the upper walkway.
In one part of the gaol, the last cell near the wall was used for the condemned, the irony was that on the other side of that wall was were they would be buried. I tried twice to take a photo of that cell and my camera wouldn't work, even though it worked fine before and after. In the courtyard of that block, there was a temperature reading of -17 degrees, one person felt really cold in that spot.
We were then taken to the hanging tower, one of 3 places where they executed prisoners. (there was one in another cell block and for a time there were gallows erected outside the gaol for public executions) We entered the tower in darkness, it consisted of 3 rooms, the main with the gallows and trapdoor plus two small rooms on one side that the condemned and the executioner were placed. In one room, my sister and I felt intense sorrow, I felt like crying for no reason, we discovered that it was the room that the executioner used. One of the women from the spiritualist church said that they didn't enjoy what they had to do and the emotions have stayed in that room. Other people could smell alcohol in the prisoner's room and the guide said that quite often they were allowed to have a final drink in there. With the lights on, the tower is a cold and sterile place and your eye is drawn to the beam constantly.
Outside the hanging tower is a grass strip that is between the outer and inner wall of the Gaol, this is were the bodies were buried, the only markings are the condemned's initials and date of execution on the wall. The only time prisoners were allowed in this are was to mow the lawn but even then some managed to carve graffiti on the brickwork of the walls.
We were led throughout the Gaol and shown the other gallows, which was on the upper floor of a 2 story cell block. My sister & I went into one of the condemned cells and felt sick to the stomach and like we were suffocating. 7 people were hanged in that area and they are buried in that blocks courtyard. 45 people were executed between 1862 and 1964, there are 16 unmarked graves and no-one knows were they are.
Construction of the Gaol began in 1840 and it was in use until 1988. Elizabeth Woolcock was the only female in South Australia to be hanged for poisoning her husband.
We finished the tour without incident but I did feel like we were being watched by something in one of the guard towers.
I recommend the Adelaide Gaol tour to anyone, you can go there independent of the tour I was with. It is open weekdays between 11am and 4pm and Sundays between 11am and 3:30pm. Night tours and sleepovers are available for groups of 15 or more. Ring the Gaol manager on 08 8231 4062 for bookings or further information.
After the Gaol we went to Carlcew in North Adelaide, a Gothic mansion built by the Bonython family in the 1800's, now housing the Carclew Art's Program. The disappointment was that we weren't allowed on the grounds, but were told we could visit during the daytime when it's open. Apparently, there is the ghost of a young girl that has been seen by the people, and it is said that Mr Bonython threw his wife from the top window of the tower when she found out he had a mistress, she didn't die, so he dragged her up the stairs and threw her back down. He then either buried the body in the garden or bricked it up in the wall, it's not exactly known.
Your gaze is drawn to the tower windows and of the two photos I took, when developed, one appears to have the outline of a figure walking up to the house, there seems to be an outline of an arm, the side of a dress and a foot.
We were disappointed yet again when we went to a house that is attached to an old Anglican church in Hindmarsh, where the pastor's lived. We weren't allowed in again and were told that PRISM investigated it a few years ago, there have been reported sightings of a young girl and unidentifiable, liquid has been seen pooled on the floor and on the walls. The house is now fully renovated and there was no feeling about the place at all. It is owned by the government and is used for offices.
The final place we saw was a cemetery, but the atmosphere was destroyed by it being flanked on 2 sided by main roads and the traffic and lights were distracting. There have been sightings of a woman in grey with a lamp (why do ghost's need lamps????) but that was all we were told.
All in all the last part of the tour was very ho hum, we were not told beforehand that we couldn't go into those places and personally, it wasn't worth the $56 paid. I would suggest that you get a group of 15, organise a group tour through the Gaol and have a meal at the Union Hotel beforehand. That way, it should only cost you about $20-$25 per person and you get the same satisfaction, without paying for bus hire.
ADELAIDE’S FAVOURITE GHOSTS
Not many of the people who pass through Adelaide Arcade would know the name Francis Cluney, but he is one of its most famous residents and one of the shopkeepers there says she sees him every day.
by Lachlan Colquhoun
Or perhaps that should be she “sees through him.” Because Cluney, the former caretaker or beadle of the Arcade, died on the evening of June 21, 1887 when he slipped and fell into the generator powering the building’s sole electric light, a luxury for the time.
Since then Cluney has become one of Adelaide’s best known ghosts, with people claiming dozens of sightings of him over the years.
Along with Ruby Bland, who supposedly haunts St. John’s Cemetery in Kapunda, Cluney inhabits a shadowy world, hovering between being an apparition some people believe in and a quaint folk tale colouring popular history.
A ghost tour of Adelaide spans the pubs of Port Adelaide, the Old Adelaide Gaol and Carclew in North Adelaide. There, the story is of a young girl who appears in one of the tower windows, the jilted wife of the unfaithful owner who threw herself from the building and to her death.
At Port Adelaide, people who take the ghost tour hear about the pipe smoking sea captain, the murdered prostitutes and the gentleman in a top hat who appears in what used to be a florist shop with a bunch of flowers.
Most people might be sceptical of these tales, but there are believers out there. “Francis Cluney is always here, but he’s not alone – there are other ghosts in the Arcade too,” says one shopkeeper, who asked for anonymity lest she be considered a “loon.”
“Francis has a friend, and there’s a woman who smothered her child with a pillow and is so horrified by what she did that she refuses to reveal her name.”
One former Arcade employee, who worked there for 10 years, claims he saw Francis Cluney on more than 20 occasions.
“He sticks to the roofspace of the Arcade, so few people actually see him these days,” he said.
Sharon Leaney, Adelaide Arcade’s public relations person, reveals there are several other common ghost stories around the building, although she says she has never herself seen one. Their stories are all documented in the Arcade Museum, situated on the upper level.
“There’s supposed to be a small child that’s often heard at the Rundle Mall end of the Arcade,” she says.
“People have reported hearing it say ‘mummy’ and there’s a lady who was shot by her husband and staggered into what is now the gold shop and died there on the floor.
“Her husband was found to be of diminished mind but was hung in the Adelaide Gaol.”
If that is indeed the case, then the woman’s husband and murderer may also be a ghost, because according to Jeff Fausch, Adelaide Gaol is “one of Adelaide’s most haunted locations.”
Fausch is president of the Adelaide Gaol Preservation Society and conducts ghost tours of the building (which is soon to close to the public). He also founded the group Paranormal Film Investigators in 2002 with the aim of conducting “scientific” searches for apparitions and other paranormal phenomena.
“I call myself a sceptical believer,” says Fausch.
“Just because you hear a noise doesn’t mean you leave it at that – you have to go back through all the footage, look at all the scenarios and dismiss almost everything and then ask yourself what it is you have got.
“I don’t consider myself to be any more receptive than anybody else but when you do encounter something it’s like a pie in the face, and if that happens, it happens.
“But I agree that 95 to 97 per cent of the stuff we see is nonsense, but I believe that there is maybe three to four per cent of stuff that you just can’t explain away.”
Using equipment such as infrared night video, tape recorders, temperature meters and meters to measure electro magnetic fields, Fausch and his group have taken around 30,000 photographs and 200 hours of video at both the Adelaide Gaol and St. John’s Kapunda, and he says the result is 20 photographs and 50 seconds worth of unexplained phenomena.
“I’ve been investigating the Adelaide Gaol for five years and in my personal opinion it is a very haunted location, which is what you might expect from a place where 21 people were executed,” he says.
“I’ve experienced shadowy figures, been grabbed by unknown forces – whatever you like to call them – and I’ve been hit in the back of the head that hard by a door that it threw me straight on the ground, on a night where there was no wind.
“We’ve also got a voice on tape which is very unusual, and we think it says ‘Sergeant Murphy’ and although there was a huge echo on our voices that night, there is no echo on this voice.”
Other experiences at the gaol include the discovery of “cold spots” which go down as low as four degrees on warm evenings and door slamming incidents when apparitions have been challenged.
“Of course what we are really looking for is apparitions, and out of our 30,000 photographs we’ve got maybe three images which look like people,” says Fausch.
“There’s a male figure about to come through a doorway in prison uniform, while another investigator took a photograph of what looked like a man in the tunnel between the main prison and the new building, sitting on a seat.
“And another picture is of a skeletal figure who was following around behind one of our ghost tours.”
Fausch admits that very often, no-one actually sees a ghost on one of his tours. But there was one tour, he says, where “everybody in the group experienced everything at the same time.”“It was about 4 am and we all saw a black figure moving up and down, almost doing its rounds like a prison guard, and there were voices captured on tape – with lots of swearing.”
While Adelaide Gaol has been his focus, Fausch has also spent more than a dozen evenings investigating St. John’s Cemetery at Kapunda, where the resident ghost is believed to be that of a young girl called Ruby Bland.
Ruby’s story is that she was a resident of the old reformatory, near the cemetery site, and died during childbirth giving birth to the child of the resident priest who was her abuser. The tale goes that she walks the cemetery looking for her baby.
A call to a Kapunda local brings the comment that “most locals think that ghost stuff is rubbish” but once again Jeff Fausch is undeterred, saying that he definitely believes St. John’s is haunted, not only by Ruby but also be a Reverend Martin who is also buried there.
“This is where I saw my first apparition,” says Fausch.
“It was running through my torch light, an adult sized male running above the gravestones but once it was out of my torchlight I couldn’t see it any more.
“Forty minutes earlier one of the other investigators had actually seen it run past her, so it was exactly the same thing and that is very unusual for two people to see the same entity.
“The other thing was a crouching figure that just appeared in front of me in ragged clothes, crouching, but it seemed to be following us around the cemetery like a conscious energy.”
For those of us who might reject paranormal explanations, there is another way to appreciate ghost stories and that is as folklore or popular history.
Folklore expert Dr June Factor from the University of Melbourne says ghost stories have many of the same characteristics as folk tales.
“They often have anonymous authorship and get passed on and polished through the re-telling, and often the same story re-appears in different locations,” says Factor.
“Ghost stories are part of a long tradition of yarn storytelling which exists in every culture that we know of, past or present, and in many folk stories the characters have a very active afterlife.
“Personally, I look at the paranormal with disbelief but I can’t see why ghosts are any less believable than religion, with its idea of an afterlife.”
The most basic thing about ghost stories, says Factor, is that they go back to a basic human desire to deny the notion of death.
“It’s the old uncertainty about what exists, other than what exists, and this is where religion also comes from,” she says.
“In other words what happens when you are dead? A big question, and a lot of people are not at all keen on the notion that nothing happens.
“So the ghost is another notion of survival, that death doesn’t really mean death, and that even though survival may not be harmonious or benevolent then at least it is survival nonetheless.”
by Lachlan Colquhoun
Or perhaps that should be she “sees through him.” Because Cluney, the former caretaker or beadle of the Arcade, died on the evening of June 21, 1887 when he slipped and fell into the generator powering the building’s sole electric light, a luxury for the time.
Since then Cluney has become one of Adelaide’s best known ghosts, with people claiming dozens of sightings of him over the years.
Along with Ruby Bland, who supposedly haunts St. John’s Cemetery in Kapunda, Cluney inhabits a shadowy world, hovering between being an apparition some people believe in and a quaint folk tale colouring popular history.
A ghost tour of Adelaide spans the pubs of Port Adelaide, the Old Adelaide Gaol and Carclew in North Adelaide. There, the story is of a young girl who appears in one of the tower windows, the jilted wife of the unfaithful owner who threw herself from the building and to her death.
At Port Adelaide, people who take the ghost tour hear about the pipe smoking sea captain, the murdered prostitutes and the gentleman in a top hat who appears in what used to be a florist shop with a bunch of flowers.
Most people might be sceptical of these tales, but there are believers out there. “Francis Cluney is always here, but he’s not alone – there are other ghosts in the Arcade too,” says one shopkeeper, who asked for anonymity lest she be considered a “loon.”
“Francis has a friend, and there’s a woman who smothered her child with a pillow and is so horrified by what she did that she refuses to reveal her name.”
One former Arcade employee, who worked there for 10 years, claims he saw Francis Cluney on more than 20 occasions.
“He sticks to the roofspace of the Arcade, so few people actually see him these days,” he said.
Sharon Leaney, Adelaide Arcade’s public relations person, reveals there are several other common ghost stories around the building, although she says she has never herself seen one. Their stories are all documented in the Arcade Museum, situated on the upper level.
“There’s supposed to be a small child that’s often heard at the Rundle Mall end of the Arcade,” she says.
“People have reported hearing it say ‘mummy’ and there’s a lady who was shot by her husband and staggered into what is now the gold shop and died there on the floor.
“Her husband was found to be of diminished mind but was hung in the Adelaide Gaol.”
If that is indeed the case, then the woman’s husband and murderer may also be a ghost, because according to Jeff Fausch, Adelaide Gaol is “one of Adelaide’s most haunted locations.”
Fausch is president of the Adelaide Gaol Preservation Society and conducts ghost tours of the building (which is soon to close to the public). He also founded the group Paranormal Film Investigators in 2002 with the aim of conducting “scientific” searches for apparitions and other paranormal phenomena.
“I call myself a sceptical believer,” says Fausch.
“Just because you hear a noise doesn’t mean you leave it at that – you have to go back through all the footage, look at all the scenarios and dismiss almost everything and then ask yourself what it is you have got.
“I don’t consider myself to be any more receptive than anybody else but when you do encounter something it’s like a pie in the face, and if that happens, it happens.
“But I agree that 95 to 97 per cent of the stuff we see is nonsense, but I believe that there is maybe three to four per cent of stuff that you just can’t explain away.”
Using equipment such as infrared night video, tape recorders, temperature meters and meters to measure electro magnetic fields, Fausch and his group have taken around 30,000 photographs and 200 hours of video at both the Adelaide Gaol and St. John’s Kapunda, and he says the result is 20 photographs and 50 seconds worth of unexplained phenomena.
“I’ve been investigating the Adelaide Gaol for five years and in my personal opinion it is a very haunted location, which is what you might expect from a place where 21 people were executed,” he says.
“I’ve experienced shadowy figures, been grabbed by unknown forces – whatever you like to call them – and I’ve been hit in the back of the head that hard by a door that it threw me straight on the ground, on a night where there was no wind.
“We’ve also got a voice on tape which is very unusual, and we think it says ‘Sergeant Murphy’ and although there was a huge echo on our voices that night, there is no echo on this voice.”
Other experiences at the gaol include the discovery of “cold spots” which go down as low as four degrees on warm evenings and door slamming incidents when apparitions have been challenged.
“Of course what we are really looking for is apparitions, and out of our 30,000 photographs we’ve got maybe three images which look like people,” says Fausch.
“There’s a male figure about to come through a doorway in prison uniform, while another investigator took a photograph of what looked like a man in the tunnel between the main prison and the new building, sitting on a seat.
“And another picture is of a skeletal figure who was following around behind one of our ghost tours.”
Fausch admits that very often, no-one actually sees a ghost on one of his tours. But there was one tour, he says, where “everybody in the group experienced everything at the same time.”“It was about 4 am and we all saw a black figure moving up and down, almost doing its rounds like a prison guard, and there were voices captured on tape – with lots of swearing.”
While Adelaide Gaol has been his focus, Fausch has also spent more than a dozen evenings investigating St. John’s Cemetery at Kapunda, where the resident ghost is believed to be that of a young girl called Ruby Bland.
Ruby’s story is that she was a resident of the old reformatory, near the cemetery site, and died during childbirth giving birth to the child of the resident priest who was her abuser. The tale goes that she walks the cemetery looking for her baby.
A call to a Kapunda local brings the comment that “most locals think that ghost stuff is rubbish” but once again Jeff Fausch is undeterred, saying that he definitely believes St. John’s is haunted, not only by Ruby but also be a Reverend Martin who is also buried there.
“This is where I saw my first apparition,” says Fausch.
“It was running through my torch light, an adult sized male running above the gravestones but once it was out of my torchlight I couldn’t see it any more.
“Forty minutes earlier one of the other investigators had actually seen it run past her, so it was exactly the same thing and that is very unusual for two people to see the same entity.
“The other thing was a crouching figure that just appeared in front of me in ragged clothes, crouching, but it seemed to be following us around the cemetery like a conscious energy.”
For those of us who might reject paranormal explanations, there is another way to appreciate ghost stories and that is as folklore or popular history.
Folklore expert Dr June Factor from the University of Melbourne says ghost stories have many of the same characteristics as folk tales.
“They often have anonymous authorship and get passed on and polished through the re-telling, and often the same story re-appears in different locations,” says Factor.
“Ghost stories are part of a long tradition of yarn storytelling which exists in every culture that we know of, past or present, and in many folk stories the characters have a very active afterlife.
“Personally, I look at the paranormal with disbelief but I can’t see why ghosts are any less believable than religion, with its idea of an afterlife.”
The most basic thing about ghost stories, says Factor, is that they go back to a basic human desire to deny the notion of death.
“It’s the old uncertainty about what exists, other than what exists, and this is where religion also comes from,” she says.
“In other words what happens when you are dead? A big question, and a lot of people are not at all keen on the notion that nothing happens.
“So the ghost is another notion of survival, that death doesn’t really mean death, and that even though survival may not be harmonious or benevolent then at least it is survival nonetheless.”
Ghost stories for Hungry Ghost Festival - Epi 9
Rumours or truth??
SGGS is a premier secondary school in Penang island. Not long ago, I was a student there and no doubt, all sort of weird phenomenons have come and pass my ears. I was not surprised that every school has spirits wondering around at wee hours but also when the school is completely desserted.
The very first story that I have heard was the school art gallery room. This room is used to store all the paintings expecially oil and paster paintings ( I have never seen it with my own eyes, but that was what being described to be). It was a dusty and eerie room I would say. There is a girl's potrait in that room which is kinda famous, which has scared many many students who had seen it. What so scary of that portrait? I have heard student got possessed in that room with the spirit of that girl in the potrait, also some have shiver down their spine whenever they entered that gloomy room. Whatever it is... whether it is true or not... it remains a mystery.
The second story which I have heard the most is the SGGS clock tower. The staircase going up to the clock tower was sealed and locked to prohibit students from climbing up to the clock tower for safety reasons. However, I have heard that a girl was found dead in the clock tower (suicide?). The reason unknown. The clock tower has been repaired for several times before but the clock still showing 10.25 (am/pm??). What actually happen to that specific time?? Hmm.. I am not quite sure but one thing I realised throughout the school clocks along the hallway (not all) showed time at 10.25 (am/pm???). Weird uhh??
The third story I have heard when I was studying in SGGS was the haunted band room. Some students claimed that they heard some instruments playing while the door was locked from the outside. I also heard that the ghost once possessed a band girl. How true it is still and unknown.
the fourth story which I heard was certain date in the calendar, the school will be completely shut and all tbe hostelites will be send home. The school will be deserted before certain thing takes place in the school during wee hours. It is believed that St George will return to the school at 10.25pm sharp on his horseback (unicorn??) to kill a dragon. Is this why most of the clocks were frozen at 10.25 and why 10.25??
Do you know why the toilets throughout the whole school do not have mirror? Have you heard before that a malay girl ghost is haunting the SGGS hostel? Have you heard before that students have heard a baby crying sound from the old Biology Lab?
Are all this just a rumour or the truth? I am not sure~~~
SGGS is a premier secondary school in Penang island. Not long ago, I was a student there and no doubt, all sort of weird phenomenons have come and pass my ears. I was not surprised that every school has spirits wondering around at wee hours but also when the school is completely desserted.
The very first story that I have heard was the school art gallery room. This room is used to store all the paintings expecially oil and paster paintings ( I have never seen it with my own eyes, but that was what being described to be). It was a dusty and eerie room I would say. There is a girl's potrait in that room which is kinda famous, which has scared many many students who had seen it. What so scary of that portrait? I have heard student got possessed in that room with the spirit of that girl in the potrait, also some have shiver down their spine whenever they entered that gloomy room. Whatever it is... whether it is true or not... it remains a mystery.
The second story which I have heard the most is the SGGS clock tower. The staircase going up to the clock tower was sealed and locked to prohibit students from climbing up to the clock tower for safety reasons. However, I have heard that a girl was found dead in the clock tower (suicide?). The reason unknown. The clock tower has been repaired for several times before but the clock still showing 10.25 (am/pm??). What actually happen to that specific time?? Hmm.. I am not quite sure but one thing I realised throughout the school clocks along the hallway (not all) showed time at 10.25 (am/pm???). Weird uhh??
The third story I have heard when I was studying in SGGS was the haunted band room. Some students claimed that they heard some instruments playing while the door was locked from the outside. I also heard that the ghost once possessed a band girl. How true it is still and unknown.
the fourth story which I heard was certain date in the calendar, the school will be completely shut and all tbe hostelites will be send home. The school will be deserted before certain thing takes place in the school during wee hours. It is believed that St George will return to the school at 10.25pm sharp on his horseback (unicorn??) to kill a dragon. Is this why most of the clocks were frozen at 10.25 and why 10.25??
Do you know why the toilets throughout the whole school do not have mirror? Have you heard before that a malay girl ghost is haunting the SGGS hostel? Have you heard before that students have heard a baby crying sound from the old Biology Lab?
Are all this just a rumour or the truth? I am not sure~~~
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