FUTURE OF HAUNTED AUSSIE JAIL UP FOR DISCUSSION

THE sale of the Old Geelong Gaol for potential housing or tourism ventures is being explored by the city council.

Talks about the future of the historic 19th-century building and Myers St property are ongoing in private council briefings, with the issue set to come to an open meeting in early March.

Early plans canvassed include a reception centre, residential development and space for offices and a gallery, with development estimates at more than $10 million.

The investigation comes after the heritage-listed Old Castlemaine Gaol was sold by Mount Alexander Shire late last year to developers for $550,000.

Cr Tony Ansett said Geelong's former maximum-security prison was under-used and a lot of it remained untouched, including substantial carpark space.

"The gaol is one of the most under-utilised sites in town that we've got," he told the Geelong Advertiser.

"I am keen to see it better utilised, but am also aware that it's getting some use in the community already.

"I would like to ensure they can still access the site."

Rotary operates the gaol and has restricted opening hours on weekends and some public holidays for tours of the facility.

Cr Ansett, the council's heritage spokesman, said any development would have to retain the site's heritage aspects, which are listed as having state significance.

While the council will seek public comment on possible future options for the prison, Cr Ansett floated the idea of converting the former cells into accommodation.

The four-storey gaol, which opened in 1864 and shut down in 1991, stands mostly unchanged from its time when it detained criminals in extreme conditions.

Men were hanged there for their crimes, including in 1863 police murderer James Murphy, who features in a current gallows exhibition.

The Pentonville-style facility has attracted the attention of paranormal researchers due to graphic accounts of bodies swinging from the hangman's noose and other so-called ghostly encounters.

The council assumed ownership of the site after it was decommissioned as a prison.

The Geelong Advertiser reported in 2007 that the council had identified the need for substantial investment to repair rotten timber and joinery in the gaol.

Source: GeelongAdvertiser(Aus)

Ghostly History:

Since its closure as a prison in 1991, Old Geelong Gaol has been open to the public for tours. History fans and ghost hunters alike pay visits to the jail to see its tiny cells, and to see the place where, in 1863, James Murphy was hanged for beating a constable to death with a hammer. 

Old Geelong Gaol is certainly dark as tourist attractions go, but darker still is the fact that many have reported seeing apparitions walking up and down the hallways of the prison, and hearing the sounds of young girls crying. Quite a few ghost-hunting teams have investigated paranormal phenomenon within the walls. 

WEIRD EVP AND GHOSTLY LIGHT ANOMALIES CAPTURED AT NAPOLEONIC FORT

Here is a `paranormal short` of an investigation of a Napoleonic Fort at Harwich, Essex.
In this investigation a spirit voices respond to a verbal statements inside the prison cells,  and a very weird light anomaly appears on photo and on video.

Hope you `like` on YouTube and enjoy! :)

GHOST CAT CAUGHT ON CAM TWICE IN HAUNTED HOUSE

Here is a compilation of two separate dates when ghostly cat EVP has been captured during investigations inside my very actively haunted home. 
It is unknown for any evp to continue so abundantly in a haunted property, and especially that of a cat.
Hope you will enjoy and `like` on Youtube. Thanks :)

MYSTERIOUS WRITINGS ON MORAG A SCOTTISH LOCH MONSTER DISCOVERED

`Nessie` - `Morags` Cousin?

Some of the earliest-known writings on Nessie's less well-known cousin shed new light on the community which lived in its shadow more than 100 years ago, according to the researcher who uncovered them.

Morag, a mysterious creature supposed to inhabit the depths of Loch Morar, in the Highlands, is the subject of three separate writings from Alexander Carmichael, a prolific gatherer of folklore in his day.

The scripts, believed to date from 1902, have been uncovered by the Carmichael Watson project at the University of Edinburgh library.

Dr Donald Stewart, a senior researcher on the project, discovered the texts while leafing through a "mad mixture" of folklore collected by Carmichael over 50 years. "We were so pleased when we found them, it was just totally unexpected," he said.

The writings paint a conflicting view of Morag. On the one hand she is presented as a mermaid-like character with flowing hair, while another description paints her as a grim reaper whose sighting was viewed as a death omen.

In the first text, Carmichael states: "Morag is always seen before a death and before a drowning." A second text reads: "There is a creature in Loch Morar and she is called Morag. She is never seen save when one of the hereditary people of the place dies. The last time she was seen was when Aeneas Macdonnell died in 1898.

"The Morag is peculiar to Loch Morar. She is seen in broad daylight and by many persons, including church persons. She appears in a black heap or ball slowing and deliberately rising in the water and moving along like a boat water-logged. The Morag is much disliked and is called by many uncomplimentary terms."

A final description, penned by Carmichael at a later date, retains Morag's association with death, but sees her take on more human characteristics.

He wrote: "Like the other water deities she is half human half fish. The lower portions of her body is in the form of a grilse and the upper in the form of a small woman of highly developed breasts with long flowing yellow hair falling down her snow white back and breast."

Carmichael, who became a figurehead for the celtic artistic movement, originally wrote the texts in Gaelic. He is thought to have spent only a couple of days in the area of Morar and did not claim to see Morag for himself. His main source of information about the monster appears to be a local named Ewan MacDougall.

Source: BelfastTelegraph

HAUNTED EARTH SHOW - FEBRUARY 2013

At long last here is the February 2013 edition of the Haunted Earth Show.

In this month`s edition, a return to the haunted house and lots more activity, a visit to a beautiful haunted church, weird EVP accidentally caught on cam, and lots more!

QUICK LINKS:

03:18 - An investigation at a haunted house.
13:07 - Field test of an amazing new camcorder, Sony, model HDR-PJ260VE
18:28 - EVP accidentally caught on cam during field test.
21:36 - Ghost Story - Naze Tower.
25:58 - A visit to Copford Church.
38:52 - A special report on location.

March 2013 promises to be an even greater show with some fantastic night investigations planned.