I was looking in the window of an op shop in Cumberland Road last week and saw a couple of hardback Enid Blyton books. One was a Secret Seven book and the other was one of the Adventure series. I devoured those books as a kid. We were always looking for mysteries and playing in secluded places that we had no business being in.
I had one of those Ah ha! moments. Maybe that explains why I do some of the things I do.
You think I would have grown out of it, but I still crave adventure......
During a late afternoon rainstorm, I drove into Ararat looking for the abandoned Aradale mental institution, I was meeting SpookSpotters, a team of paranormal investigators for an over night investigation.
I hadn’t bothered with directions, I smugly thought I would find it easily as most asylums are built on hills and loom menacingly over the nearby town. Quickly realizing I had no idea where it was, I rang Christine for directions and made my way up the hill towards the enormous building, through the massive grounds of 100-odd hectares, containing around 68 buildings and parked the car.
Seeing Tomkat, he directed me to the safe room, that had been set up using an incantation of psychic protection, in the large dining area attached to the old industrial kitchen. Everyone else was exploring or setting up the DVR camera system in the men’s wing.
One end of the cavernous safe room had tables, chairs and bench tops, the other had eight single beds set up dormitory style. I chose a bed, dumped my bags and headed towards a door at the end of the hall with the female toilet symbol on it.
In the alcove behind the door there were two doorways, one leading to a spiral staircase climbing to one of the Victorian towers and one to the bathroom. Every corner was full of dust and debris that had accumulated from broken windows and the wind rattling its way in.
I weaved my way around gaping holes in the rotten floorboards to the single cubicle. Lime and rust stains oozed down the inside of the toilet bowl like something had been slaughtered in it. Bursting, I quickly did what I had to do, before the creature that obviously lurked there attacked me and then went to wash my hands.
Turning the tap, rusty water flowed out like blood and the pipes groaned and vibrated, as the water started to run clear, I was about to put my hands under when there was a huge bang and air in the pipe burst from the tap and sprayed dirty water all over the walls. I tentatively reached over, turned off the tap and made my retreat to the lawn outside wiping my hands in the wet grass.
The team was making their way back so we ate our picnic dinner and then took torches to explore other areas of the grounds to decide the best areas to investigate. After exploring the forensic unit and the nurses’ quarters we made our way past the swimming pool with its shallow, seething black water and through the long grass to an isolated area that had an old house style building.
In this building I was surprised at the size of the rat droppings in the empty rooms and when we found the rotting corpse of a rat as big as a large cat, I understood these were not normal city rats. Standing in the kitchen with HLD I heard a screechy noise like a demented rat behind me and having already seen the insulation from the oven dragged out and made into an eagle sized rats nest, I turned round ready for a confrontation but was relieved to find it was HLD’s digital camera making the noise. After finding another rat corpse and admiring an antique desk in the otherwise empty rooms we made our way out into the rickety building next door.
It had a rotten verandah and was surrounded by cyclone safety fencing with a sign saying ‘Maintenance’. On entry, the sign did not fit the interior of the building. Although there was an area at the back where industrial cleaners had been stored, a toilet with an Aids sign hinted at another purpose. On the way back to the safe room we explored the high security female cells.
The team broke up into three groups. One team to investigate the women’s hospital, the men’s ward and the chapel, the other team monitored the DVR. My team had to investigate the female ward, the administration building and the high security female cells, the only area that gave me
the creeps and I couldn’t wait to go back!
During the vigil in the female ward, Catseyes and HLD communicated with two entities, a male sexual attacker and a female victim. The sense of menace experienced was explained on return to the safe room, where we noticed raised red welts over one side of HLD’S face and then later I found Ararat was closed in the 90’s due to sexual and physical abuse of the inmates.
The next vigil was in the administration building where most of the time was spent exploring the warren of rooms. After admiring the arched leadlight window and the antique sideboard with etched glass boasting Mental Health Australia, we set up in the reception area for a short uneventful period.
Next we went to the high security female cells. We chose to sit in the open area surrounded by the cells, rather than the common room with the peeling, molding wallpaper. Using the divining rods, Catseyes asked a few questions and the rods kept pointing to Chainz, the rods reacted in the affirmative to her question “do you like Chainz”. CE passed the rods to me, the main response to my questions was for them to turn right round and point at me or to Chainz. CE quickly realized that my buttons seemed to be the point of interest. Too soon we had to return to the safe room, taking the shiny buttons and pretty boy with us.
For the next four hours I watched the DVR cameras with Tomcat. Wrapping our selves in blankets against the cold, the time passed quickly. Suddenly, out of the corner of our eye, we both caught a strobe type flash through the narrow pane of glass in the door. Using the walkie-talkie, Tomcat checked the location of everyone and no one was nearby. Strange.
Around 5 am we all headed back to the safe room and one by one, fell asleep composing a symphony of snores.
By JulieD
Copyright - Spookspotters December 2007 Newsletter.
Last year on the final night of the school play, Claire asked if she could go to the "after, after party". Some of the year 11 boys were going to Williamstown beach for a party, to drink vodka and look at the stars and a few of the other kid were going too.
Mark and I both went to pick her up. On the way home we passed a car of teenagers that had also been at the beach. It was parked on the side of the road and one of the very young kids was vomiting. He had thrown up over one of the girls in the back, so she was just in her bra and jeans. We stopped to check they were ok, gave the girl a blanket to keep her warm and waited till their designated driver was ready to leave.
