30th October, 2001

Sad news, I find out the Orphanage is due for renovation into modern style offices and to be closed within the next few months.

We decide to pay the old haunted building and it's ghosts one last visit.

It seems only a month or two ago when I found the place, but really, it was quite a number of years ago. I found it quite by accident when I did a historical tour of the Asylum at the front, which has also been renovated into modern style offices. I had no idea that there was this old run down haunted building hiding at the very back of the site. I thought all my Christmases had come at once when I saw it and immediately gained access.

Nobody knew about it, none of the Paranormal people had ever heard of it and I almost had the place to myself........well as far as the ghosts went. Only the Parramatta historical societies and other enthusiasts were interested in the site. I spent a lot of time exploring the outside and visiting it on open days. Even when I went inside, on occasion, when the building was open to the public, people were encountering strange black shadows and other strange things. This beautiful old building was definitely haunted!

Of course with a lot of publicity from Castle of Spirits, people soon wanted more access into the building. Television shows started to use it and now many many paranormal researches have paid a visit to the Orphanage.

I was first to arrive on the Tuesday which would be the last time I would ever visit the Orphanage. I had the unusual opportunity to walk around the building by myself which was great. All was quiet however, there was no evidence of any kinds of paranormal activity. The spirits seemed settled on this day. But it was still nice to just explore the place on my own and see if I could capture anything on film.

Soon some others turned up at the designated time and I also had the chance to talk with the developers. It seems that the Orphanage is only weeks away from it's new renovations. It's with mixed feelings that I say goodbye, happy that the building will be restored, sad that it won't be available to people like us any longer. I hope the ghosts enjoy the new paint and the greatly anticipated renovations.

We had a psychic on board with us this time round. One who had already greatly explored the site and claimed to have met up with it's ghostly inhabitants already on previous occasions. I was interested to see what she heard, felt and saw inside this historic site.

The air was clear except for the thick layer of dust that was disturbed by our small group, no bad feelings no unseen presences and to our great disappointment no spirits.

I can say that I only felt one strange feeling up on the 3rd floor of the Main center building. It was dark due to the boarded up windows and when visiting this area for a second time the air definitely felt "different". It's difficult to describe but we certainly felt as if some presence or force was in the room with us. The feeling of goosebumps and the common heaviness to the air was making myself and the others with me feel uncomfortable. The feeling quickly dissipated when a large board of wood on one of the windows decided to fall and make a loud "BANG". In a dark room in a haunted building, you can imagine the result!. Yes we all jumped!

We spent a happy day exploring the rooms, cells and darkened stairways of the place. Only to get the odd unusual feeling but this time round we did not have any unusual occurrences. No unusual anomalies showed up on any photos taken and we sadly left, saying "Goodbye" and hoping that the ghostly inhabitants give the new living habitants hell!

Rowena