Adelaide Ghosts and Hauntings - Paranormal Field Investigators

THE INVESTIGATIONS

BACKGROUND

P.F.I. first heard of Tailem Town
Pioneer Village and it's 'ghosts' when a local newspaper ran a story about a couple who had an experience in the Wolseley church that sits in the township. They talked of feeling uncomfortable and of how the floor suddenly felt like it was bubbling and vibrating. It was when they developed their film that they found an oddity on one of their photos.

Other tales started to spring up about the Village and soon we were becoming more intrigued. However, it was a few more years before we finally approached Peter Squires, the owner, to ask if we could come in during the night and investigate the township. Another lady had sent us a photograph, again taken in the church and also stated that she had felt odd in there.

So it was that in April 2010 we took a trip up to the township to see if there was any truth in the rumours.

The night was clear with a new-quarter moon.

OVERVIEW

On first arriving at the town, the light was falling and it soon became easy to get lost in the dark whilst walking through the streets. Everything looked quite different at night. We decided it would be easier to drive the car from location to location in the Village. As time was short on this first investigation and we only had three investigators to cover it, we chose two locations to settle into. The first was the Wolseley Church and the second was the Bent Elbow Hotel. The team consisted of Anna Bird, Debbie Jackson and Alison Oborn.

Wolseley Church

At 9.30 p.m. the investigation started in the old church where we set up our equipment on the pews, half way down the aisle. We had decided to just sit and monitor and also try some EVP work. It was only 30 mins into the investigation that we started to get small curious incidents occurring. During the EVP work Anna asked if anything was there could it knock. Indeed a small, well timed knock did seem to occur. Anna again asked for another knock... to which a 2nd knock was heard in response. It should also be noted though that the church is made of wood, and so is not inconceivable that with the air temperature dropping, the wood could be contracting and making noises.

Five minutes later Debbie could hear talking, almost like men whispering just outside the door. On checking there was nobody there. As we were the only ones in the village at this point we were unsure where the noise could be coming from as Peter had long since gone home. This was quickly followed by one of Alison's knees chilling noticeably. Upon checking with the laser thermometer, the left knee did indeed constantly read colder then the right knee by a full 2 degrees. A draught? It can not be ruled out, however the doors at this stage were closed and the church has no open windows. The left knee was the only part of Alison's body that was affected. As a side note, the EMF meter did trigger rapidly 5 or 6 times at this time.

Five minutes later we were startled by a sound next to us on the wooden pew much like a mobile phone vibrating when a message comes through. For a moment we thought we had left a phone on but on checking none of the phones had messages.

We waited a while longer until it was decided to retire to the car for a drink break. We sat in the car facing the entrance to the church. As we were sitting there we all commented on the strange flashes of light that seemed to be coming from the church. Alison dismissed these lights as maybe just headlight reflections from the freeway that was across the way.

It was when Alison listened back to the audio though that it sounded a little more curious. A short time into us leaving, there is an enormous bang next to voice recorder followed by what sounds like air movement or breathing almost next to the mic. It should be noted that all the equipment was untouched when we re-entered the church and nothing had fallen over. Where the equipment sat was half way up the church where there are no objects to fall. As for the microphone sound, where the equipment was sitting was well sheltered amongst pews and as stated before the doors were all closed and there are no open windows to cause such a heavy breeze that the mic would be directly affected. As we were monitoring the front door of the church, we knew nobody had entered. We had checked the back door earlier when another sound was heard but this was locked and bolted from within the church.

The Bent Elbow

At 12.50 a.m. we settled in to the Hotel next to the bar. This is where we tried a new and very controversial experiment. We had seen a lot of stories of the 'ghost box' which Alison is the greatest skeptic of. Out of curiosity and so she could talk from experience when debunking, we decided since it was a quiet moment to have a play with it. On asking questions as expected all that came through was radio chatter. But the answer to one question remains curious. "Is Peter's friend here tonight?" Alison asked. "My name is Jack" came a reply. Nothing was thought of this at the time and it was dismissed as radio chatter. After a while we wandered over to the grave of Peter's friend who used to live there and also died there. The headstone read 'John Hopkins'... well that was that... just radio. It wasn't until the torch dropped down on the headstone that we saw "Jack" written underneath.

Please note though, this incident cannot be seen with any credibility. The 'ghost box' due to it's very nature of receiving radio signals taints and puts anything coming through in question. Also please note that this was a separate experiment from the usual P.F.I. research and was just a play around to see what the fuss was about. We only list it here as it was a curiosity nothing more.

The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful. The investigation came to a halt at around 5.30.

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