Visit November 17th and 20th - EVP Recording?
Our first trip was last Thursday with my self, Dave and my young Aunty who had flown down from Sydney for the week.
We first went to the Willow Court side and had a brief walk through ward B to try our first lot of EVP recordings. But unlike the other times we had been into Ward B, we didn’t feel anything and the EVP attempts failed to yield any results.
From there, we walked around Wards D - G near the oval. While we didn’t enter any of the buildings there, we were able to look through some of the broken windows. One of the wards - a two story one - had a stair case with some sort of folding/sliding door at the bottom.
We then went over to the east hospital side and went briefly into Ward 7 and tried to record some EVP’s but with no success. However, we found a piece of paper from the Tasmanian Fire Service in regards to a false fire alarm.
Next on the list was to go back to the ward where we got the strange “Face” photograph to determine exactly which ward it was - Ward 9. Although we didn’t go in on that day, we took several photographs and once again tried with the EVP recordings. While I am still waiting to get the photos developed, we did pick up something unusual with the recordings.
I was holding the recorder through the same broken window that I had taken the photo and asked three questions - “Last time we were here we managed to take a photo of somebody who was still here. We were wondering if you would like to speak to us today?”, “Could you tell us your name?” and “Are you the only one here?” After both the first and second questions, there was a bang from inside of the building that the recorder also picked up. But the strangest thing is at the end of the recording after the third question. There is a noise that lasts a second that increases in volume then just cuts out. We have ruled out speech or any other sounds made by us, car going past as there were none and the possibility that it was something brushing against the recorder as we experimented as to how that would sound. The results of that was a tinny sound tap noise. We also know that we heard nothing like that sound at the time of recording.
My recorder is a Panasonic RR-QR150. I bought it online and was told it could be linked to the computer, yet after the sale, I was told that the person didn’t know if it could or not. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me out here as I would like to be able to examine the recording closer.
After Ward 9, we walked around the Chapel and then to Ward 10 where we over heard two men talking about the Wards history. I approached them and asked if they would mind talking to us. It turned out that one of them - Stuart - had worked in the kitchen as the finance in the 70’s and had recently bought the building in order to turn it into an auction room. He showed us around the huge custom made kitchen that use to produce 4000 meals a day - 3000 for the 1000 patients and a further 1000 for the staff as they went about their shift work.
We tried to ask him about the strange “happenings” of the Royal Derwent, but he seemed reluctant to tell us anything, except that you could say stuff about each of the wards.
We returned again on Sunday, minus my Aunty, but once again with Dave’s sister and best friend.
We went back to Ward 9 to explore the ward. There was something very strange about the ward - nothing “bad”, just uncomfortable and sad. We found several items to subject that Electro Shock Treatment was used in the ward, including an old cream tube of “Electrode Electrolyte” with the following directions:
“Squeeze a small amount of Electrolyte onto electrode area of skin and rubin for ten seconds with slight pressure. Apply additional Electrolyte on electrode area or on electrode. Apply electrode using adhesive collars or collodion.”
We also found 4 pages of an 8 page document on treating patients with Electro Shock Treatment.
Amongst the other items we found was a piece of paper in which to record the diabetics and epileptics of the ward, metal clipboards with blue patient sheets and a copy of the New Testament, once owed by someone of the name, “Gower”.
Diabetics and Epileptics
Clip Board
New Testament
While walking around we tried to do numerous EVP recordings. My voice recorder is voice activated, but for some reason, it would just cut out halfway through my talking as if no one was talking at all or that I was being silenced. We weren’t able to pick up anything else.
There were also a few, small rooms that looked like they had once been padded cells. The padding had been taken off the walls, but the markings left behind suggested that rectangular panels had lined them.
In one particular section of the ward, it seemed to be harder to breathe, despite there being numerous broken windows. I also developed a strange taste in my mouth - a bit like blood, as if I had cut myself and I was sucking at the wound.
Everywhere you went, it looked like shadows and reflections where playing games with you. Dave decided to sit in one spot and use the digital camera to try and capture something. He came back with this photo.
It seemed a little too clear cut for us, so after a few experiments, we realised it was Dave’s arm in the way and the flash “Whiting” it out.
Control Photo
Once we had finished in Ward 9, we walked around to Ward 10 and discovered a door that was ajar. While we didn’t have time to explore properly, I did take one last shot for the day of one of its corridors. We also know that Ward 10 was also used to house the criminally insane.
I’d just like to finish this post with a few comments left to my last entry. They have been un-edited, except to remove email address that may have been included.
I know alot about Willow Court
Anonymous
Hello I used to like in New Norfolk Tasmania and my mother was a registered nurse at Willow Court her name was Lee-Yvette Reilly. She worked in Willow court when we lived in Tasmania and was one of the head nurses in the investigation the took place in the ward that was closed.
She knew a lot about how haunted the ward was eg toilets flushing by themselves, lights turning on and off, and even physical experiences in which a male staff member was attack by a spirit and also visual experiences including a little boy that was spinning in an office chair and smiling.
I remember visiting there a couple of times it was really scary I was about 3/4 it used to scare me all the patients shouting and screaming and I used to have night mares about it though I don't really remember what it looks like. My mother said there was Male spirit that was very dominant alongside two others. On the night of the investigation my mother caught a photo in a pitch black room of one of the wards or a light bolt of energy. Much like lightening but I have lost the picture it was taken in a pitch black room without a flash camera.
My mothers name was mentioned in a local news paper and the ward was shut down not long after. If you would like I could get all kinds of information off my mother on the haunted ward, I forget what ward she said it was, I can ask. Okay the ward she worked on was ward 10, Carol Atkins was the superviser that decided the investigation shoul be done after many staff including my mother were reporting what was happening. The violent male spirit in ward ten made a man faint and my mother saw it, three spirits approached them in the hall and rushed through a male staff member.
My mother did night rounds. My mother and another staff member were the first to report the incident on ward 10, which is the most violent of Willow Court.
I know alot about Willow Court
Anonymous
Just want to make a correction to my daughter's entry. It was Ward 5 that I worked on, and not Ward 10. At the time of the 'happenings' it was distressing, although the staff in other areas, were saying the only spirits we were seeing were the ones in the bottles!. But it was so funny when they were trying to send these particular staff to work on Ward 5 after the incident, they wouldn't go - they were chickens!!!
I continued working there on the nightshift with a guy called Danny, and I can tell you it was real. We were frequented by visitors all hours of the night, especially the little boy with the bowl haircut - dressed in clothes of the 1800's. I called Carol Atkins the supervisor over, because the toilets were being flushed one night in a day room, at the complete opposite side of the dormitories. She witnessed it, so from there, it was investigated. We had sceptics come from as far as Adelaide, but nothing could be found. It got so bad on that ward, that Management closed the ward down and boarded it it - so you tell me if they believed it! They had to relocate everyone on that ward - why would they go to the trouble if there wasn't anything. I could write alot more, but I will leave it there. Whether you believe it or not, I don't care, because I was there and it happened!! Lee Reilly
ward 10
Anonymous
i worked on ward 10 for a full 3 monthly rotation ... it housed basically male burnt out alcoholics, some victims of measles vaccination gone awry, and punch drunk boxers and such ... middle aged and beyond ... ward 7 was presumably the female equivalent ... i didn't work there ... wards 1 and 2 were for the true hard core criminally insane men and wome ... i remember stories of reggie baker i think it was who ripped a several inches thick plate steel door between the two wards off with his bare hands in an escape ... before medication the royal derwent was like a dickensian bedlam... i remember a chap called Robin on ward 1 with the face of an angel and beautiful manners ... normal as you and i ... who'd killed all his family ... i remember my first day as student nurse arriving at a middle aged womens long term lock up ward and being confronted by Jean who displayed her finger to me (half of it was missing) and told me to read up her file ... jean basically ran much of the ward, very capable with periodic strange bouts,but before medication she had killed 2 people inside the hospital (one staff one patient)... the finger had been worn down rubbing it against a sandstone wall in an airing yard, being hosed down after one in an endless string of violent episodes ... under medication she was just a middle aged capable matron who had been locked away for then 37 years ... fascinating place ... i worked there for a couple of years in the late 70's
Just on a final note, to help raise fund for the project, I am selling copies of the “Face” photo on eBay. If you are interested, please click the following link - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5638286287&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1