The Campfire Ghost

* Sent in by Ricky Compton

I still don’t know if it was a real ghost or not but it scared the crap out of me anyway.

Me and two of my mates went on a camping trip to Woods Point in Victoria about two years ago and it was a trip I’ll never forget.

I finally got my drivers’ license so decided to take a bit of a road trip one weekend.  I had never been there before, but my mate Geoff reckoned it was a great place to camp.

The first day we had a look at the old gold mines and shafts and did a bit of a tour of the area.  I didn’t like going into the old mines because they were unsafe and creepy.  I was happy to wait out the front while Geoff and Dave went in for a look.  Dave was sure he was going to find a rogue gold nugget and Geoff was always the first one to give anything a go.

Later that afternoon we pitched our tents, set up the swags and lit a campfire.  It was going to be a really cold night so we wanted to cook our food before dark and rug up in front of the fire.

It was about 11pm and I was ready to head into my swag for the night.  Geoff and Dave were doing the same.  Once settled we called out to one another, laughing and joking around.  I could see the silhouette of someone standing by the campfire.  I thought it must have been Dave, but then I heard his voice coming from the tent beside me.  So it must have been Geoff, so I yelled out and asked him what he was doing.  “Lying in bed” he told me, his voice coming from the tent to the right to me.  So with all three of us in our tents who was out there standing by the fire??

I didn’t want to get out of my swag, but my curiosity got the better of me.  I was scared but just couldn’t help myself.  

Peeking out through the zip on my tent, I saw an old bloke with a long, stringy grey beard, wearing a tattered flannel shirt.  But I couldn’t see below his knees or his feet.  All I could see was his head, torso and thighs.  I screamed in shock and fright.  The figure turned and looked at me then faded away to nothing.  I couldn’t believe my own eyes.  One moment the old man was there and the next he was gone.

By then Geoff and Dave were out of their tents demanding to know what the hell I was squealing about.

I stuttered and stammered and tried to describe what I’d seen.  The guys just looked at me like I was an idiot.  ‘Bullshit’ was the general consensus.

But I knew what I’d seen and no one could convince me otherwise.

We went back into our tents, but I didn’t sleep too well that night.

The entire following day the guys ribbed me about my ‘old man ghost’.  At every possible opportunity they stuck the boots in.  

I was so buggered that night that I went to bed not long after dinner, leaving Geoff and Dave by the fire.  I bombed out pretty quickly, but was woken up some time later by the sound of Dave yelling.  I sat up in my swag a bit disorientated.  Then I heard Geoff shuffling around in his tent.  Next thing I knew my tent zip opened and both Dave and Geoff bundled in.

“I saw him,” Dave blurted out.  “So did I” replied Geoff.  It took me a moment to register who they were talking about.  Then they described exactly what I’d seen the night before  -  an old bloke with a stringy grey beard and a flannelette shirt.  And just like the night before, the man’s feet and lower legs couldn’t be seen.

Both Dave and Geoff kept apologizing for taking the piss out of me.  We stayed awake for most of that night, way too spooked to sleep peacefully, and we were glad to see the Sun come up.

We left the campsite after breakfast and headed for home, glad to be leaving the ghost of the old man behind us.

*
* Sent in by Ricky Compton

Footsteps From Above

* Sent in by Wendy Wright

About 15 years ago when I was doing my hairdressing apprenticeship, I’d left my country home and had come to the city to gain my qualifications and secure employment.  I rented a small one bedroom granny-flat and worked at the local eatery three nights a week.  

Everything was fine for the first six months or so and I was happy and content in my little home.  Then one night I heard footsteps running above me which had me a little perplexed as my granny-flat was single story.  The footsteps sounded light as though they belonged to children, and it sounded like there was more than just one or two of them.  I checked for possums and/or rats, but found nothing to give me any clues.

I could hear the footsteps regularly from that night onwards.  They would start up at about 8pm and continue until after 10pm.  On the nights I worked I would come home to the tail-end of the pitter-patter of running feet.  After a while the sound of running feet above just blended in with my daily life and I hardly gave it a second thought.

About two months after the running noises started, I was in my bedroom getting ready to turn in the for the night when suddenly I caught a glimpse of a small child, a young girl of about 6, standing in the corner.   But as soon as I turned my head to get a better look she was gone.
It certainly shook me up but I was determined not to let it stop me from having a good night’s sleep.  But I turned out to be wrong.  Very wrong.

Not long after dropping off to sleep I was woken by loud stomping coming from above.  “OY!” I yelled and the stomping stopped immediately.  I nodded off to sleep not long after, only to be woken again.  This time I was scared.  I tried to snap on the bedside lamp only to find that I couldn’t.  It was as if there was a weight on my chest, holding me down and I was frozen in place.  The next thing I knew my alarm was going off and it was morning.
I was pretty shaken up at the thought (or memory) of it and couldn’t shake a foreboding feeling for the rest of the day.

That night during my shift at the restaurant, a familiar face came in  -  Mrs Arnot and her family.  Mrs Arnot was seen as a local matriarch and the place always lit up when Mrs Arnot and her brood came in.  She was friends with the owner and always tipped the staff liberally.  Not only that but she was my landlady as she owned the property that my little granny-flat sat on.
Clearing the plates from the table, I shyly asked Mrs Arnot if I could speak with her privately at her convenience.  She happily followed me to the foyer and waited expectantly while I fumbled and mumbled.  I just didn’t know how to start or what to say.

Mrs Arnot smiled and nodded slowly at me.  “You’ve heard the footsteps haven’t you dear?”  All I could do was nod yes.

She then went on to tell me that a double-storey house once stood on the site where my granny-flat now was.  There had been a fire and the three children and their mother had perished.  Since the granny-flat was built there the footsteps and sometimes even voices had been heard by all the tenants throughout the years.

I went home that night with a different perspective and felt quite sorry for the family who played above me.  I did a little research and was given the name and number of a medium who specialized in helping spirits pass-over, so I arranged for her to visit the following week.

I can’t describe or tell you what happened because I left her to do her thing.  All I know is that I never heard the footsteps again and I hoped that the family were finally at peace.

*

* Sent in by Wendy Wright

Spirits By The Roadside

* As told by Susan

My friend Debbie wanted a lift to a roadhouse as she was going to start a job, so my ex-hubby Bill and I decided to take her.  We were driving along smoothly until we got just outside a town called Truro in South Australia.  Then the car stopped for no reason. Nothing, not even the radio would work, everything was so dark, so silent for what seemed to be ages, but it was only for a few minutes.  We were very nervous, and we just couldn’t work out what was wrong.

Then the car started to work again and we decided to get away from there as quickly as we could.  We didn’t stop until we dropped Debbie off, then returned home.

Not long after, we saw a news story about a man picking mushrooms who’d found dead bodies … now known as the ‘Truro Murders’.  One of the perpetrators died in an accident and the other man is in jail for the murders.  They’d happened straight across from where our car had stopped. I felt the chills run down my back and I believe the spirits had stopped the car to let us know, so they could be found,  but being so quiet and dark we just wanted to go.

I know now that if that happens again, its’ someone who needs help to be found.

 * As told by Susan

The Ghost in the Curtains

* As told by Susan

We lived in a three bedroom house at Richmond South Australia.
My eldest brother Derrick who is about six foot tall had the middle bedroom. We were given some second-hand curtains which we put up in Derricks room.

That night a large man well over eight feet tall with pointed hair (shaped like a pointed cone and he looked like an Indian), came out of the curtain and started to attack  Derrick. This man picked Derrick up by putting his huge hand around Derrick's throat and threw him against the wall. Derrick fought back with all his strength as Derrick was strong himself and had learnt Judo, this man-thing left.

Derrick stayed up the next night just in case it came back. It didn’t that night but the next night it came and once again they fought.  Derrick even head-butted this man-thing, then it was gone again. It didn’t come back the next night.

Derrick told his girlfriend and she gave Derrick a cross to wear.  Derrick said “what can a cross do against this giant man-thing?” but promised he would do what she told him to do.

That night it came back ready to attack Derrick again, then Derrick showed the cross and told the man-thing to ‘Go … Go in Gods or Jesus's name.’  With that the man-thing left but went into our other brother’s room. When Derrick saw this happened  he ran after it, telling it to ‘get out … get out of here and never return.’

Derrick showed us his neck and you could plainly see the buised hand mark nearly all the way around his throat.

When Derrick told us that it came from out of the curtain, we immediately took the curtains down and threw them into the rubbish.

We’ve never kept second-hand curtains again.

 * As told by Susan

The Hitch-Hiking Spirit

* As told by Susan

I was driving down a road with a couple of friends in SA, when we saw a tall guy hitch-hiking, so we thought we would pick him up as there were three of us and we knew we would be safe and we had already on a few occasions picked up hitch-hikers to give them a lift, to help them out.

When I turned the car around then headed back towards him slowly, we could see  he had a smile on his face, so we stopped and offered him the lift and told him it would only take a moment to move a couple of things out of the way because he was tall, we wanted to make him feel comfortable, then we opened the door to let him in.  But nobody was there.  We got out of the car and had a look around, then we just looked at each other and decided to just home drive home.

The next day we saw on the news that not too far ahead from where we were there had been a bad accident.  We looked at one another and shook our heads -  it could have been us.  And still to this day I thank the spirit or angel who saved us.

 * As told by Susan

The Spirit's Warning Voice

* As told by Susan

This is one of my true stories, I do have more.

 When I was young I was always running away,  and on one  occasion I was picked up by a guy  who was thin, had afro hair, wore glasses and drove a white Valiant car.

He told me he would take me to New South Wales.  Wow that sounded so good, I thought, hopping into his car. His car was messy with things on the front and back floor, and as we were driving along I keep getting this cold feeling go through my body.

We had travel about 4-5 miles when he turned to me and said that he better contact the family just to let them know, we pulled up just passed the phone box which was near a bridge just ahead and by a train line.  While he was in the phone box all of a sudden I heard a voice telling me to "get out … Get Out … GET OUT  NOW!”  Three times this happened, but louder and louder each time.  Then the door window went icy, so I quietly opened the door and ran to the bridge and hid.

When he finished with the phone call he kept looking around  trying to find me, then shook his head, got back into his car and drove off. I waited for about 15minutes then left the bridge.

When I returned home  I told my mother about it.  A few months later I walked into the lounge room where my mother was watching a special news broadcast, and I said  to her “that's the guy who picked me up and was going to take me to N.S.W! What's he done?"

My mother said he had killed a  TV personality's son and is one of ‘The Family Members’,  and his name  was/is  Bevan Spencer von Einem.  He is now serving his life behind bars. My mother said I might have been he’s next victim if I hadn’t taken notice of the spirit voice.

The thing that is more interesting is this was not the first time he tried to pick me up.  I kept having and still do have dreams that when I was about 7-8 years old I was at the beach.  It was either Glenelg or Henley Beach in South Australia.  I was standing near a fence by a building all by myself and I watched a black car go by, then return, and a man who looked like the guy who wanted to take me to New South Wales  asked me if he could take me home.  Then  a member of my family came, and he walked away fast,  and my family told me they were sorry they’d forgotten me.

Its’ really funny though, when I went to have a reading done the person told me I was taken from my family and was given to another family …  that’s why I always felt lost and kept running away, even though I never revealed anything about myself.
* As told by Susan

The Spirits In The Kitchen

* As told by Debbie

One day not long after moving to a new suburb and house, I was standing in the kitchen getting myself a snack, when I saw my little jack Russell Terrier Candy run past me and dart into the lounge room where I saw who I thought was my brother Terry walking around the corner towards the front door.  Candy began barking furiously and I figured she was just barking at Terry because she thought he was going out for a walk without her, so I didn't think much of it right at the moment, until my mum (who was in the study down the hall) called out something to Terry, and he answered her from his bedroom right next door to the study  -  nowhere near in the lounge room.

I thought I must have heard him wrong, and he just sounded like he was down the hallway, but when I turned my head to the right I saw his bedroom light on and his shadow moving across the wall. That's when I started panicking.  Who was it who had walked through the lounge room towards the door?

Candy continued to bark so I went to see who had walked to the door, which was where Candy was now standing.  When I came around the corner I was relieved to see no one there, but I was confused about what I’d seen.  Candy looked at me, then back at the corner near the front door and continued to growl and bark.   I opened the door, but Candy didn’t want to go outside ... she just stood staring into the same empty space, with her hackles rising and bristling.  I could see her baring her teeth.  I became very frightened so closed the door and ran to my parent’s room. 

I told them what happened, but mum and dad just looked at me like I was nuts.

Another day I was preparing myself some breakfast and turned to get the milk out of the fridge.  I saw a lady standing by the bench.  I got a fright and my heart started beating really fast and I was about to ask her who she was and what she wanted  -  but she was gone in an instant.  Just vanished right in front of me.  I left my bowl of cereal on the bench and just walked out of the kitchen really fast.

One night my mum was cooking dinner and I was watching TV in the lounge room.  I could hear her clattering the knives and spoons and pots and pans and even the sizzling of the onions.  I was about to ask mum what we were having for dinner, when I thought I heard her talking with someone.  We were the only ones home at the time so I figured she was just talking to herself while she cooked.  Then I heard her say ‘thank you’ a bit louder.  I thought I’d go into the kitchen and see what mum was cooking, and as I walked in mum turned and smiled at me and said ‘now you can get out the butter for me’.  ‘Ok’ I replied, getting the butter from the fridge, handing it to her.  ‘That shoulder rub really did the trick.  Thanks for that Debbie,’ my mum said.  I looked at her and said ‘what shoulder-rub?’  ‘The one you just gave me when I was stirring the onions,’ she replied.  I said that I had been watching TV in the lounge room all this time and it was the first time I had come into the kitchen.  Mum’s mouth dropped open and she asked who had been massaging her shoulders then.   I didn’t know what to say but I felt really freaked out and so did mum.

One time mum was cooking a roast but the oven kept turning itself off.  Dad checked it and didn’t find anything wrong, but still it would work properly.  Mum ended up cooking on the stove top, and the electrician came to look the next day.  There was nothing wrong with the oven and it started straight away and stayed lit all the time while the electrician was there.  But as soon as he left the oven started playing up again.  We would never know if we were going to be able to use the oven from one night to the next.

Another time the oven turned itself on in the middle of the night and mum found it turned on in the morning.  But none of us had turned it on.  it was extra warm in the kitchen that morning, but not at the spot where the kettle was.

Sometimes when you would make a cup of tea and stand near the kettle, you could feel freezing cold air around you.  One day I had a friend over and I was making us some snacks and cups of tea, and she was standing in the kitchen talking to me while waiting.  She was standing in front of the pantry door and kept looking at it.  ‘I think you’ve got rats’ she said all of a sudden, swinging open the door.  But there was nothing there so she closed it again and started back on the conversation we were having. Mid-sentence we both heard cans of food being moved around in the pantry and my friend Kelly jumped away from the door.  We stood looking at the door, both of us too scared to open it and look.  The sounds continued and got louder and louder.   It sounded like the tin cans were being bashed against each other.  ‘Mum!’ I yelled.  We both ran out of the kitchen.  Mum met us in the hallway and asked what the matter was so I told there were rats in the pantry.  I really thought it was our ghosts, but I didn’t want to say anything in front of my friend because I didn’t want to spook her into not coming over again.

Mum glanced at me and made her way to the kitchen pantry and swung open the door.  There were no rats, but the cans were lying all over the place, with some on their sides and others upside down.
‘Who did this!?’ mum shrieked.   We said that we hadn’t done it, and I told her that when we looked in there, there was no one there.

There was another time when we come home from shopping and all the cupboards and draws where open, and all the plats were stacked neatly on the floor.  No one had been home and all the doors were locked.

We lived in that house in for 5 years all up and lots of other stuff happened over the years, and I was very relieved when we finally moved out.

* As told by Debbie

Leanne's Spooky Stories

* As told by Leanne

1)

When I was about 15 I never believed in ghosts or anything really until this one night, and ever since I have believed and seen different things.

I had been reading a book in bed and then turned the light out.  I felt like there was someone in my room watching me and I thought it was my mum at the door as I saw a shadow of someone standing there. It was 12 pm and I could hear the TV on so I knew my mum was still up.  I quickly turned my light on and the feeling was gone the shadow was gone and my door was shut. I was so freaked out that I left my light on the rest of the night.

The next morning I found out my best friends' mum had died that exact time I felt someone in my room.  So I figured she was there to say good bye to me I still haven’t worked out why though.


2)

Two years later I had the same dream 3 nights in a row that my grandfather had died.  There was nothing wrong with him at all. The morning after the third nightmare about this my phone rang early in the morning and it was my Nanna asking my mum to come very quickly. 

My Grandfather had died in their garden from a massive heart attack.  I blamed myself for his death for years just because of having these dreams.  It took me years to tell my mum or anyone about this too.

3)

Years and years ago my Nanna was about to turn 70. The night before her birthday party I had the weirdest dream where she was at my bed, telling me that I have to be strong for everyone cause she was dying.  She wasn’t sick at all at this time.

The next day at her party before anyone had turned up she held my hand and told me to keep it in mind what she had said the night before in my dream (she must have had the same dream or something I couldn’t work that part out).

 A couple weeks later I came home from work and my mum was crying and I asked what was
wrong.  My Nanna had emphysema and they couldn’t do anything for her and she has to give up smoking which she didn’t like the thought of either.

For a year and a half she was in and out of hospital and finally passed away in her sleep while in hospital.  It felt so eerie because I knew something was wrong before it even was and I had to keep it to myself and be strong for everyone else.

4)

The night I had my first son they had just taken him to clean him, and then came back with him while everyone else had gone to let me rest.  I was holding my newborn Jesse and I felt and saw my Nanna sitting beside me (by this time she had passed away about seven years prior).  She told me he was beautiful and that she was so proud of me.  In those seven years my Nanna had come to see me from time to time and told me she was always here and watching over us all.

5)

I was very pregnant with my 3rd child, and my brother had been rushed to hospital and was lucky he got there when he did otherwise possibly wouldn’t have made it.  When he came out of a medically induced coma weeks later he had told everyone he had seen me and my new baby the night before.  I went in to see him just a few hours later and he asked where bubs was and why I still looked pregnant.  I still had 3 weeks to go and he had told me it was a boy and his name was Josh. 

When I did give birth it was a boy and we called him Josh because that’s the name I had liked anyway, but it was so weird that my brother had dreamt it and he looked the same as he had described so they have a special bond between them cause of it.

* As told by Leanne