Phantoms and Monsters

I received the following email in reference to a post:

Hi, I just randomly came across your page on St Marks and just had to tell my own story after reading that last comment about the dog in St Marks cemetery

I was short cutting through the cemetery on my way to the shops with my then girlfriend. This would be about ten years ago. Keep in mind that at the time I had never heard any story of any ghosts or any dog at the time and had no interest in that type of thing.

It was about 2pm in the afternoon. As we were about halfway through it we both heard as clear as day the sound of a large dog running fell pelt towards us from behind, a sound I was well familiar with having always owned big dogs. Both of us in unison jumped and looked behind us expecting to be bowled over, and nothing. There was nothing there at all. Though we both heard the faint sound of what sounded like heavy panting. We double timed it out of there I can assure you!

A freaky experience but something forgotten and not thought of again until a couple of years later when I read an article by Liz Vincent in the local paper about the cemetery and people having been chased off by a large black dog that vanishes. The article also mentioned that the church's first minister owned a large black dog that was buried in the grounds. I got chills after reading that!

Thanks for reading,
Jim

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The following narrative is the post Jim referenced:

news.com.au - Does this photograph show the figures of two children, born nearly a century apart, walking in their own paranormal playground?

The family who took this picture while on a ghost tour in Picton, NSW, swear there were no children inside the St Mark's Cemetery.

Which begs the question: who, or what, is out there?

Local legend has it that the two children are David Shaw and Blanche Moon, who died 60 years apart.

Blanche was crushed to death in 1886 when a pile of sleepers that she and a number of children were playing on slipped.

David was the son of a minister who died in 1946 from polio.

The woman behind the lens of this mysterious photo, Renee English, said she was "a sceptic" before undertaking the ghost tour on January 9.

"When we were standing at the bank looking into the Cemetery I was just snapping away and making jokes about the whole thing and asking when the ghosts were going to come out," the Port Macquarie resident said.

"I know that when I took that photo there was no-one else in the cemetery. The only people we saw were a family of four about 10 minutes later but those kids were clinging to their parents the whole time.

"When we uploaded our photos and saw the children all the hairs on my arm stood up and I just went cold all over.

"That night I couldn't sleep at all and I'm never watching a scary movie again.

"I wasn't a believer in ghosts, but now I'm intrigued."

Local historian Liz Vincent conducted ghost tours in Picton, claimed to be Australia's most haunted town, until her death last year. Since then, her husband John and daughter Jenny Davies have taken up the mantle.

"Picton's just so haunted," Ms Davies said. "We find people always love to see their photos afterwards because most of these things aren't visible to the naked eye."

One of the tour's most popular figures is Emily, a lady who was hit and killed by a train in 1916 while taking a shortcut through the Redbank Range Tunnel, also known as the Mushroom Tunnel, to visit her brother.

Emily Bollard resided near the railway line and was a single woman aged in her 50s. Before taking her shortcut, she didn't check the timetable and was hit in the tunnel by a train coming from Thirlmere. She died instantly.

"She likes to move among the participants and loves to touch their hair and body, particularly their arms and legs," Ms Davies said.

"Those on the tour often say that they've also felt a cold wind blowing through the tunnel."

NOTE: I'm going to reserve judgment on this one until the image is inspected a bit further...Lon

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THE GHOSTS OF ST. MARK'S CEMETERY - PICTON, NSW

St Mark's Church and Pioneer Graveyard was designed by architect, Edmond Blacket. Construction started in July 1850 but when gold was discovered most of the workmen abandoned the site and headed off to the goldfields. The church was finally completed in 1856. Built of sandstone in the Old Colonial Gothic Picturesque style, the church and cemetery is located on Menangle Street West, Picton.

There have been quite a few spooky stories about this beautiful old church and cemetery. A woman who was parked nearby spotted a young boy and girl holding hands and walking around the graves. After ten minutes or so the children disappeared behind the headstones. It was not until the woman had left the area that she realised the children had been dressed in old-fashioned clothes. There have been several other reports of these strange spectral children. An acquaintance of mine claims to have seen a small girl dressed in white wandering through the cemetery very late at night.

A large dog has also been seen on more than one occasion and is responsible for the harassment of a few terrified visitors. Could it be the ghost of a minister's faithful St Bernard that is buried on the church grounds? - paranormalaustralia.com / news.com.au

You may also want to check out these links:

Reporter Fears She Has Allowed Ghost Into Her Home

Touring Some of Australia's Most Haunted Locations

More Strangeness From Picton, NSW, Australia

Suggested Reading:

Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World

Haunted: The Book of Australia's Ghosts

Where Spirits Dwell: Fascinating true life stories of haunted houses and other paranormal experiences

Offbeat Australia: A Unique Travel Guide to Australia's Unusual and Eccentric Tourist Attractions

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