There are many stories about the Dandenong Ranges, haunted houses, ghosts and mysterious happenings. I have personally been witness to several strange events that were difficult to define with a natural explanation.
As a teenager my boyfriend and his friends would drive up to the top of the mountain range to a well known ‘Haunted House’, where part of the fun was breaking into the somewhat derelict castle shaped property made of blue stone. The challenge was to scare each other and get past a crazy grounds keeper and laser alarm systems. I am not sure any of them actually every witnessed anything of a real paranormal nature, but just loved the thrill of being able to enter the spooky old house. However there is a particular story about a group of kids driving up to the same property and being warned off by a mysterious walker who just appeared out of the bush emphatically telling them to stay away. The group then encountered the same man much further up the hill who repeated his urgent warning yet could not have possibly walked faster than the car. What rings true about this is that they thought this man was entirely real, and never questioned the situation until the strangeness of the second encounter.
The forest itself can be pretty spooky depending on the weather, the fog and mist high in the hills and the dense rainforest, burnt trees and the sound of owls and the mimicking yet elusive Lyrebird.
Nestled on the north/west side of the mountain range in part of the dense and partially burnt forest is a old log cabin house, built around 1870 and one of the first properties in the area. An old house always to some degree holds an imprint of those that have lived and died there. A presence or an energy, ingrain in the wood, like a needle on record, occasionally this energy emerges like music from vinyl. The definite and defined sounds of walking and footsteps in the house, knocking on doors, sometimes for hours during the night. A feeling of being watched, and the sight of people that should not be there, often again mistaken for real people. This house is fascinating in its beauty, history and a strange feeling of perpetual gloom. There are many specific stories about this property.
At the bottom of the hills to the north is a township in which it is rumoured that the cemetery has a particularly large amount of paranormal activity. It has been for many years a place were people travel in the hope to see or feel something paranormal or perhaps even capture something on film. Many pictures of Orbs have been captured in this cemetery. At 140 years old it is likely to hold an abundance of energy, sadness grief and loss, and also some fine history of the area. One of the biggest draw cards no doubt for tourist and ghost hunters alike is that this is where Dame Nellie Melba is buried, and it is rumoured on a still night she can still be heard.
Do you have any stories about strange or paranormal activities in the Hills?