The lights go off. We’re huddled in a small room at the bottom of a tall tower, looking eagerly up into the dark void above us. We’ve heard tales of past residents, local stories of sailors and not to mention the forgotten burial ground surrounding us. True stories kept alive through history.
Now, our guide quite calmly asks out loud – “If there are any spirits present here, please make yourself known to us.” The wind is fierce outside and there’s an eerie feeling that fills the room. A glimpse of moonlight is creeping in through the high windows, and then… we see a soft shadow moving above us.
Our guide, Ken, is dressed in 1800s attire. He says this allows the ghosts to feel comfortable with something familiar to their era. The tour group of about 20 includes a handful of locals, and at least five people game enough to declare they are non-believers. This doesn’t faze Ken, who speaks confidently about the dead among us and ensures us we are all in for a fun night regardless.
And he wasn’t wrong. We were led on foot by lantern light through the streets of historic Williamstown and in the cold night air we found intriguing spots you’d walk passed without a second glance during daylight.
We walked through one foreboding alley way in single file ensuring a 2 metre gap between each of us (for full exposure to any paranormal activity). I can still feel the chill down my spine. We were told multiple ghostly tales while stopping along the way at the very locations these fables unfolded all those years ago.
We finished the night by entering Victoria’s oldest morgue. Yes, we went inside a dark, dank room which had been used for many years to store the town’s corpses.
Our last ghost hunt for the evening involved the use of dowsing rods, which aided us in communicating with the spirits of two young children in our presence.
Throughout the tour we were taken back in time and couldn’t help but keep our ears perked to every word. This was a truly fascinating and exhilarating night out. In this digital age of glamorous online storytelling, there’s really nothing quite like a real life experience.
Lantern Ghost Tours run award winning tours across Australia’s most haunted locations.
With four Ghost Tour options in Melbourne’s west:
Ghost of old city Williamstown
Altona Homestead Ghost Tour
Eynesbury Homestead Dinner and Ghost Tour
Point Cook Homestead Ghost Tour
And if you’re really keen to experience what’s on the other side, some locations have paranormal group investigations available too:
Point Cook Homestead Paranormal Invesitgation
Altona Homestead Paranormal Investigation