IS THIS A GHOSTLY LADY CAPTURED ON DOOR OF HISTORIC TASMANIAN BUILDING?

The Coffee Palace

A ghostly apparition has been captured on film by a group of school students on Tasmania's Maria Island.

  The group from nearby Triabunna High School were on a three-day school camp on the island.

Grade eight student Jess told Your Afternoons' Penny Terry, that she snapped the picture in the historic Coffee Palace.

"We were taking pictures and it showed up on one of my pictures through a doorway," she says.

"It was an old lady with glasses."

According to Maria Island National Park ranger Donnalee Young, the legend is that it is the ghost of one of the island's longest residents, Rosa Adkins.

Rosa was married to Thomas Adkins, the patriarch of the Maria Island family, who was tragically killed in an industrial accident in 1890.

Rosa remained on Maria for another 52 years and was eventually laid to rest in the island's cemetery with Thomas.

The original photo showing anomaly

Donnalee says Ms Adkins had close ties to Darlington, the island's one town.

"She was involved in running the Coffee Palace as a boarding house and a restaurant," she says.

"So she had strong links to that building."

While Donnalee says she doesn't feel a presence in the building, many visitors to the site comment on it and ask the rangers about ghosts.

"Some people even during day have gone in there and they've only lasted a few minutes and come walking out rather briskly and saying they don't really want to go back in there for the rest of the day," she says.

The same photo brightened up to show anomaly

Today, the Coffee Palace is set up as a museum, with Rosa Adkins' picture taking pride of place over the mantle in the front room.

The entire scene has an eerie air.


"It's very evocative, with all that fantastic old antique furniture and just the smell of the place as well," Donnalee says.

"It just seeps out of the walls."

Source: ABCHobart

 My view: Quite how anyone can see an old lady in glasses is beyond me. However there is a light anomaly there. In my opinion to accept this as paranormal the door glass and interior needs to be checked and verified that the anomaly is not light reflection or a flaw in the window glass.