Ipswich offers ghost hunts

Ghost Tours operator Jack Sim (back) with Queensland paranormal investigator Shane Townsend (front) is starting a series of ghost hunts.

Sarah Harvey

OFFERING a walk on the paranormal side, notoriously haunted Ipswich sites are set to form part of a series of upcoming ‘ghost hunts’.

A partnership between Brisbane-based Ghost Tours and Queensland Paranormal Investigators (QPI), the hunts aim to give people a hands-on opportunity to experience a paranormal investigation.

Dark historian and manager of Brisbane-based Ghost Tours Jack Sim said the first of the special tours would take place in Wolston House on Saturday, April 24.

Built of brick and timber in 1852 and extended with sandstone in the early 1860s, Wolston House’s 156-year history is not short on hardship and death.

John Ommaney took his last breath there following a skull-shattering horse riding accident in 1856 and Jem Grindle, the daughter of then Wolston owner Jim Grindle, also died after a fall from a horse in the 1940s.

Mr Sim said while there were no specific reports of ghosts, there had been enough reported encounters to suggest there was some sort of lingering force in the house.

“There is no specific haunting, but over time many thousands of people of all ages have visited the house during the day and night for functions since the property was taken over by the National Trust and many of them have claimed to have felt a presence difficult to define,” Mr Sim said.

The tours will also take in the Commercial Hotel in Harrisville on May 29 and the Rosewood Hotel on September 11.

“As part of the tours, clients get the opportunity to see what the ghost hunt is all about,” Mr Sim said.

“They might have seen a hunt on Most Haunted on television, but a real ghost hunt involves historic research combined with science, patience and luck.”

Mr Sim said some of the investigative techniques used included EMF readings (which detect disturbances in the electro magnetic field), EVP (which looks for strange voices or sounds in digital recordings), spiritualist techniques such as dowsing rods and video cameras, which are set up to run all night to detect any anomalies.

Clients are also encouraged to bring their own cameras (still and video) to aid in their investigation.

“The ghost hunts are a unique opportunity to visit heritage buildings and sites which are said to be haunted,” Mr Sim said.

“They hear the history of the property and the history of the haunting and the idea is to give them a ghostly experience.”

For more information, visit www.ghosthunts.com.au.