IN 2008, as part of a series on hauntings in the south-west, MATT NEAL and JADE McLAREN visited a number of spooky hot-spots to see if they could have a paranormal encounter. In this story they visited the Leura Hotel in Camperdown, supposedly the scene of a murder more than 100 years ago.
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SINCE the start of this ghost series, it’s been amazing to find the number of people, from all walks of life, who believe in ghosts.
When Jade and I arrived at the Leura Hotel in Camperdown to investigate the pub’s mysterious Room 25, we immediately struck up a conversation with Luke, a Ballarat shearer working in the area.
Seated at the bar, dressed in shorts, work boots and a bluey singlet, Luke earnestly related his own ghostly encounters.
‘‘I used to hear him stomping up and down the hallway. He’d stomp three steps and kick the wall every night and it wasn’t just tap, tap, tap. It was bang, bang, bang!
‘‘My ex-girlfriend wouldn’t stay over (she was so freaked out).
‘‘Apparently the guy who built the house died before he finished it. He must have been pissed off he didn’t get to finish the place.
‘‘Then one night we had a good party — didn’t trash anything, just had a really good night — and we never heard him again. Maybe he realised me and my mates were pretty cruisey and he decided to leave us alone.’’
★★★★★
SOME people believe in ghosts, some don’t. Leura Hotel publican Michael Ward doesn’t seem like a believer.
He didn’t hear the stories about Room 25 until after he took over the pub about a year and a half ago.
The tale goes something like this: sometime at the end of the 19th century, a maid was found dead in Room 25. No cause of death was established and no investigation took place but there was some suggestion she had been murdered.
Since then, stories have popped up about bizarre occurrences befalling guests staying in Room 25.
In his time there, Mr Ward hasn’t come across any, although he did recall a couple of strange incidents happening in other nearby rooms.
‘‘It was in Room 26, just next door,’’ he said.
‘‘I was checking a guy into the room and when we went in, the bed was made up but it had no pillows, so I put him in a different room. When I went in the next day to put pillows on the bed, the bed had been (messed up).
‘‘The door was locked, no one had been in there. I can’t explain it but there could be a logical explanation.’’
It was only after he claimed the keys to the pub that Mr Ward found out about the ghost stories and the mysterious Room 25 from locals.
‘‘They don’t tell specific stories. They usually just say it’s haunted, or usually things about beds being (messed up).
‘‘But everyone who tells the stories has never actually seen anything.’’
★★★★★
AS a bit of a hobby project, Camperdown resident of 47 years Max Thorne compiled many of the stories about Room 25 into a short story.
While ‘‘some of it is a bit of poetic licence’’, Mr Thorne explained, many of the tales in the narrative came from stories he was told by prior Leura publicans.
‘‘A lot of it was hearsay from previous owners. I don’t have any first-hand knowledge,’’ he said, adding he heard the stories during his time as a ‘‘regular’’ at the pub.
The most compelling of the alleged Room 25 incidents is that of a man who was unable to enter the room, barred by a mysterious force that refused to let him cross the threshold.
There were apparently common complaints that the room was always cold, despite warm weather outside, and numerous instances where bedsheets were found ruffled or unmade despite no one having been in the room.
Guests also were said to have had their belongings scattered around the room, despite no one having been in there. At least one guest was so creeped out by Room 25 he instead spent the night in the bathroom.
★★★★★
AFTER a few enjoyable hours in the bar, we headed upstairs. I had the keys to Room 25 and Jade had Room 26.
Compared to the Elephant Bridge Hotel at Darlington, the Leura Hotel didn’t feel as haunted at first, although we couldn’t exactly say why. But as the night wore on, the creaking floorboards added an eerie soundscape to the historic building, while the old-style fireplaces and long hallways seem to fit in with the setting for a ghost story.
Despite regular experiments, including leaving the room regularly to see if anything had been moved around during our absence, and putting picture frames at an angle to see if ghosts straightened them out, no supernatural activity manifested.
We didn’t find anything weird until we adjourned to our separate rooms and Jade discovered some strange blood-like stains on the bare floorboards and a nearby cupboard in Room 26. They looked like they’d been there for a long time, but it creeped out Jade a little.
Weird stains on the floor don’t really make for ghostly evidence though and, for the fourth time, we’d found nothing, just stories.
Ghosts still make for good stories, though.
★★★★★
END NOTE: This story was originally published in The Standard in 2008.
