You may have seen on the Paranormal Project Facebook page that the team checked out reports of ghostly hauntings at Bungunyah Manor at Mount Tamborine last weekend.
This investigation attracted a lot of media attention, with stories featuring in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper, Tamborine Times, on two commercial radio stations and website mygc.com.au. The main reason for all the hype is that the scene of this investigation has a long history of reported hauntings.
Bungunyah was established in 1882, so as you would imagine, it has welcomed many guests over the years. We went in well prepared with all of our usual equipment, a photographer and a team of psychics.
The venue, on Long Road, hosted a sold out Dinner with Spirit on the Saturday night. So to avoid any possibility of contamination, we entered on the Sunday night.
I volunteer as a clairvoyant with the team, so I’m going to speak from that perspective. The first odd experience I wanted to mention is that while we were dropping off our bags in our rooms (pictured below). Some of us spent the night and were told we would have to phone General Manager Kerry, on her mobile. But standing in the hallway (also below), none of us could get our phones to connect. Just then our photographer, standing next to us, announced that her camera had all of a sudden started showing an “error” message and had stopped allowing her to take photos. She had been happily snapping away until then. We managed to get through to Kerrie from inside one of the rooms and headed downstairs.
The plan was to break up into two teams, visit separate rooms within the main homestead, then swap. We would then re-group and compare notes. So we were standing in the waiting area discussing these plans and getting the equipment ready when renowned psychic medium Amanda De Warren suddenly announced she could sense a male spirit. She described him as being a lowly worker, whose teeth were all rotten and speculated that he may have been buried under the homestead as there was a cold chill coming up from one section of the wooden floor. We grabbed our very sensitive devices that measure very slight changes in temperature and noticed a definite drop.
Then the deceased former owner of Bungunyah reportedly turned up and stood close to another psychic, Emmy. Sydney-based clairvoyant Christine Rose said the ghost of “Emily” quite liked Emmy and thought she might be able to teach her something. As we were chatting a sudden rush of chilly wind flew between us, blowing my hair back off my face. It was gone as soon as it arrived and stopped the conversation quick smart.
We decided to get started. A lot of what was discussed in these separate investigations will come out eventually, complete with photographs (fingers crossed we captured some apparitions). But here I want to mostly focus on the similarities between what both teams picked up. The first big one was the story of “Mary”. I felt a strong sense that someone was trying to draw me upstairs. While I was standing there I would occasionally feel a rush of cold air whiz past me down the stairs. When Amanda De Warren joined me, we discovered this spirit’s name was Mary and that she had most likely been shoved down the stairs and possibly broken her neck. The temperature on one step in particular was beyond freezing and again we noticed a dramatic spike using our equipment. Mary’s story was largely told by former Bungunyah owner, Emily. We later discovered while flicking through a photo album that Mary was Emily’s mother.
While here we also picked up a chill under a day bed that was parked up against the stairway’s railing. We sensed that there were three children hiding upstairs. One we felt had died of some kind of respiratory illness such as Pneumonia or Bronchitis. The other group confirmed that when they walked into this area they too sensed there was a Mary there and they also found the three children, but they had moved downstairs.
It is probably worth mentioning too that we entered the bar area during the second part of our investigation where there is a piano that has had all its components removed. The reason being, that guests would regularly complain that they could hear music being played by a phantom pianist. I sensed that a tall male spirit was close by. He showed me how he would flick up his long coat tails and take his seat at the piano before he played. He also indicated that there was a photograph of him standing on the staircase in the guest accommodation area with a woman. Special guest investigator Russell, brought over his EMF meter and there was an immediate and severe response. Sometimes we’ll see readings of 0.3 or 0.5, this time the meter hit 21.
We do plan to head back to Bungunyah Manor to delve deeper and, as always, will keep you posted.
Above: Looking back toward the accommodation area.
All photos supplied by Brad Kilty.
