My family and I moved to a large cropping/grazing property for work in 1994 on the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga
and Narrandera NSW. My husbands duties were maintenance, operation of the machinery and green keeper to the main
homestead. We did not expect what was to come when we moved. We were moving at all hours of the day and night but
the first thing we noticed was when we were moving our goods to the new house late one night, along our 8km
driveway, sitting on top of the fence posts were owls. This is no big deal except there was one on every post for
almost 150m. We saw this as an oddity and laughed it off as a welcome by the locals.
The next thing that happened was the following morning. We still had a number of trips to make as not all our
furniture was there yet, but we slept on makeshift beds in the lounge room the night we had seen the owls. We were
awoken by loud banging and thumping from the rear of the house. Then it seemed to go around the house as though
someone was trying to find a way in urgently. Upon investigation we found a crow flying directly at the window
to the laundry and hitting it. Birds quite often will fly into windows, but this one was persistent. It moved around
the house trying all the windows.This was very unusual. We did start to think maybe something was trying to say
something, but what was the message? The crow would return and repeat this every 6 months or so for the time we lived
there.
Nothing more happened until we had settled in.
The house was set in a remote location on the property with only one
other house about 500m away from ours which had been the
original homestead, it was rented by a single career woman
who was hardly ever home. This end of the property had been
the location of the original owners. In the early part of
the last century it was a central hub for the area for
travelling swagman and itinerant workers to come and seek
work during and after wartime. There had also been a tribe
of aboriginals in this area living on the river, but they
had died of various European ailments following white
settlement. This being said, it had a lot of history.
Next to our house about 200m away stood the shearing shed. You had
to go past this to get to our house. This shed always gave
me the chills when I looked at it. Our bedroom, lounge and
bathroom faced this shed and when I went to bed at night or
had a shower I always pulled down the blind so I couldn't
see it. It always felt like you were being watched from it's
side windows.
I began to take notice of the shed when I
noticed one morning that the windows on the side of the
shed were closed, yet when I went to bed they were open. No
one had been down that end of the farm that day or the
previous evening apart from us. We actually noticed this
happened regularly. The windows would be closed only to find
them open again later in the day. We would often hear what
sounded like the windows slamming repeatedly, but when you
looked they were as they were before. They were just
openings in the side of the building with shutters that
were hinged at the top like a lid, not from the side like a
door and secured in place with a chain in a slot to stop
them moving. They were very heavy and took a bit of muscle
to lift open, so the only way to open and close them was to
use the chain.
We heard much later not long before we moved from there that many years before a young roustabout had
been killed in the wool press by accident during shearing one year. I do not know if this was true, but accidents did
happen like this in the old days.
My stepson was living with us at the time and he was living
in the shearing quarters at the side of our house so he had
his own privacy (teenagers!). He had a small dog that used to
stay with him in his room at night for company. Often the
dog would start to growl at the door or the window as
though someone was there and other times it would hide
under the bed and refuse to come out. Some nights my stepson
would sleep inside on the lounge, but he never really gave a
reason until he moved out 12 months later with his
girlfriend.
He said that at night he would see the
silhouette of a head and shoulders through the glass panel
in his door as though someone was standing on the step to
his room looking in. Other times this would be at the window
at the head of his bed. He also said that he would get
knocking on his door at night and on the wall with the
window. He had covered the glass on his door with a poster
to try and avoid seeing anything and he played music at
night to try and drown out any noise he might hear. When he
moved out my step daughter moved into his room about 2
months later and she experienced the same problems even
though we had not told her anything about it. Her little dog
also did the same as the previous dog. We would often hear
one of the shearing quarters doors slamming at night
without any wind or cause.
There were 5 consecutive rooms in
a row but no evidence as to which one it was.
Our youngest son and daughter stayed in the house with my
husband and I as they were too young and not even at school
yet. My daughter hated her their room and hated going to bed
because she said that her toys were watching her and moving
around the room at night. Our son was only 2 and a half
years old at the time and also had misgivings about their
room though he couldn't explain why. Often we would hear him
talking in his room through the baby monitor as though
talking to someone. His sister was not in the room.
One night he was sitting at their little table having their evening
meal when he looked up into the kitchen next to him like he
was looking up at an adult and said "go away bad man!" and
then continued to eat his meal. We were all in shock at
this though we had hoped that the "activity" was limited to
outside. We were unable to get anything out of him as to who
the bad man was or what he looked like.
Often at night we would experience banging or thumping on
the outside walls of the house, with no sign of the cause. It
was not water pipes. It would thump on the walls, doors and
occasionally the windows. No crow this time! The odd thing
with this was that the yard dogs did not react at all to
this noise.
My husband had a large workshop and machinery shed over
near the main homestead where in his spare time would work
on his stationary engines we collected. Often he would be
ther until all hours of the night. Some nights he would come
home early because it was not happy with him being there. It
would relocate items and make him feel very uncomfortable
and unwanted. Sometimes he would see indistinct forms or
shadows around the workshop as well. This presence seemed to
be isolated to around the shed because as you got about
half way between our house and the shed it would stop and
the feeling lift.
Our horses also didn't like certain parts of the property
nearby. On the final leg of the driveway about 8-900m from
the house is an avenue of gum trees lining the road. This
avenue is about 200m long but the trees are not dense, only
about 10m on each side and then bare paddocks beyond
that. They would start panicking about half way along the
avenue, and other times they would refuse to go through at
all. There is also a billabong or small lake on the property
about 1km from the house and only 600m to one side of the
avenue. Here the horses also played up if you took them near
the billabong.
We discovered one day during a walk a gravestone at the base of a tree near the billabong all
covered in leaf litter. You would have to go past this first to get to the water. It is in this area that the horses
shied and tried to head home. If you went for a walk in the evening you always tried to make it back to the house
before dark as strange sounds were often heard in the avenue of trees and paddock beyond leading towards the
billabong. My step daughter and a friend came back one evening as white as a sheet claiming they had heard strange
noises in the avenue with loud bangs and things moving around when there was nothing there. They also claimed to
have heard a scream as well as loud moans in the paddock on the billabong side of the trees. At that time there were no
cattle in this paddock. I myself had heard strange noises whilst walking through the avenue that I could not
rationalise. I am a believer, but I don't jump to the paranormal every time something odd happens, I like to find
the cause first. But the noises I had heard I could not explain as well as the unshakable feeling of being watched
and followed.
A small book had been put out by one of the original owners
of the property describing life on the farm in the early
days and within it it tells of a swagman who came to the
property seeking work and supplies. He was said to have a large roll of money on him, which was unusual for a
swagman. The next day his belongings were found scattered in a line from near the avenue of trees heading for the
billabong as though he was discarding items to make an escape quicker like he was being chased. His body or money
were never found, but it was beleived he met with foul play. The swagman had been a regular to the property turning
up about every 6 months. He never returned.
Were the disturbances we experienced the swagman trying to
get someones attention and reliving his attack every
6months for those that are receptive to the other side?
Is that why the avenue and the billabong were such hot spots?
The main homestead near our house also had activity with
the sound of light switches clicking on and off like the
ones early last century. Odd noises were also heard from
time to time throughout the house, though the tenant would
not elaborate further. The homestead was large with many
rooms and the few times we were there alone of an evening
made your hair on the back of your neck stand on end.
I'm glad we didn't live in that house even as large and
beautiful as it was. Who knows what walks the halls?
Thank you for taking the time to read my story and would be
happy to hear from others.
Contact me here: trueblue7192@yahoo.com.au
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