I Went On A 4-hour Ghost Hunt at Paramatta Gaol in Sydney

I went on a spooky four hour ghost hun at Paramatta Gaol, to seek out the spooky and supernatural.

I’ve been on so many ghost tours, I have lost count. Some have been entertaining. Many have produced no paranormal or supernatural experiences. And others, well, they have certainly given me a taste of the other worldly.

Check out some of my previous Ghost Tours stories here and here.

The one thing I have never experiences, expect through YouTube, watching some of my favourite channels who explore some of the most haunted placed around the world, mostly the UK and the USA, I have never myself been on a ghost hunt.

So, what’s the difference?

The difference is, on a ghost tours, for around an hour (sometimes a little bit more), you are taken on a exploratory tour of your haunted location, told stories from the past, some scary, some horrific and if you’re lucky you may pick up something supernatural along the way. Essentially, it’s a night of entertainment hen you’re on a ghost tour.

Though I have from time to time experiences a few interesting supernatural experiences on some tours, such as the Q Station here in Sydney, the old Government House of Parramatta, and the Very haunted vaults of Edinburgh in Scotland, most of the time the tours are just a bit of fun, to hear about the past and stranger events.

A ghost hunt however, is very very different. Here you are guided by a paranormal expert, to search for ghosts and attempt to make content. Some ghost can be residual, and others can be engaging.

Residual ghosts are often the remaining energies left over of someone who may have passed at the location you are exploring, or from someone who spent a lot of time at the location. Such as a resident, or a worker.

Those that are engaging, it is believed those ghostly presence the of people who either refuse to pass on (depending on what you believe), or are too confused to pass on and have stayed too long. Unable to go. Or perhaps they choose to stay, to continue their engagement with the living.

On a Ghost Hunt, you are given the opportunity to use specialised devices, believed to help you communicate with the ghosts.

Though, I sometimes wonder if even this most sophisticated devices can actually pick up anything at all. More often than not, the human body, which we scientifically know, contains some of the most incredible energies, which we are now only just beginning to understand.

Or perhaps our ancestors had a far better understanding which was lost in translation throughout the ages, and we are only now starting to re-connect with those energies again. Those energies often produce far more advances ways of communicating with the ghosts, than that of a small device. If you know how to use that energy that is.

For this ghost hunt, I found I had more experiences without the use of the devices given to us on the tour, and I am no expert at all, believe me. But I will tan about that a little later.

The tour chosen for this ghost hunt, was a four hour one at the old Parramatta Gaol, north west of Sydney.

Now, I say old, but in fact the centre, which was converted into a correctional facility in the early 20th century, only closed down in 2010. However, a better part of at 80 percent of the facility is from the early 1800s, after it was built in the centre of Paramatta, when in the late 1700s into the early 1800s, previous jails which were made of wood had burnt down.

This magnificent and formidable building is made all of sand stone and was built by the convicts and the in-mates themselves, as part of their rehabilitation at the gaol. And when you stroll throughout each wing, each bundling represents a different era of architectural design. Which varies from colonial, to British style, a wing influenced by American design before leading into a more modern Australian style.

Parramatta Gaol literally is a historically timeline of design in the correctional space, of the ages. And makes for a fascinating experience, whether you choose to take an interactive tour, a ghost tour, or a ghost hunt.

In all honesty I didn’t know what to expect on the ghost hunt. Part of me was hoping to have contact with something, part of me didn’t. It was a gaol after all. So a little concerning, who or what would want to make contact if it did. All in all, I will still excited to go.

The hunt starts off with a brief tour of the grounds, so you have to map out the location a little. This is because, at the end, you are given free reign to explore on your own. Depending how gutsy you are. The hunt did go from 8.30am to 12.30pm, so a late night, when all the spooks come out LOL.

After the quick tour, you are then split into smaller groups (depending how many people book), to go off and begin your investigations. Our group started with a test of the mind. We all took turns going into a jail cell, with no light. Though we didn’t have blindfolds because of COVID. We did wear headphones which played white noise. No light, just you in the dark in a jail cell, listening to white noise. You only stay for three minutes, and you may or may nor feel something. I heard a male voice. Though I didn’t know what he said. It was very clear, and incredibly unsettling.

The next part of our hunt took place in the showers, where we then used a communication device to see if any ghosts were present and wanted to chat with us. It was a little difficult to make out voices, but it seemed like a Colin came through who said hey. But then that was it. It also sounded like Colin said farewell at the end when we were finished. So that was pretty cool. If it was real of course.

We then moved onto a very spooky section of cells, where I had an interesting and unnerving experience. It’s important to note, that we did have light with us on part of the tour, so you weren’t always in the dark. Which meant, if you saw a shadow and no other investigator was present, there was a strong likelihood something was lurking nearby.

We were given an EMF ready, which is a device that checks for any disturbing in the energy fields around you, a voice recorder to see if it would pick up anything outside of our ears of hearing, and an ovulous which is a device that uses energy waves given to spirits, if they want to try and form words, it will announce then on the device.

When using the devices, nothing came through, quiet as a mouse. However, when we moved up to the second level of cells above us, though the devices didn’t pick up anything, the body did. It felt like someone walked past us on the stairs, and then I felt an uneasy presence in one of the cells which I didn’t like. I also heard a male scream. And there were three other people standing next to me – they didn’t hear anything at all. Weird.

There were a few other activities we did on the hunt afterwards, which were more energy based exercises, to see if you could feel shift in the air around you and other cool stuff. So here, rather than replying on devices, you had to close you eyes and really focus on the energy around you and see if you could feel anything shift. And I can 100 percent confirm, I felt that. Though it took a while and a lot of concentration, it certainly felt like something was present and moving the energy around us to make itself known, which was a very interesting experience to way the least.

It was such an amazing experience to do this ghost hunt. And I particularly loved how we then got an hour to explore the gaol on our own. Though a little overwhelming, as the place is huge and very very scary at night. It certainly gave you a taste of what it would have been like back in the day when it was still in operation. Okay, so may it wasn’t as quiet, as I have heard stories that jails at night are not so quiet, depending on the images, especially as over a century ago, Parramatta Gaol did have a section dedicated to the criminally insane. Something tells me, that wing would not have been that quiet.

None the less, it did give you perspective on what it would have been like to have been there when the lights went out at night. And don’t get me started on solitary confinement eek!

This post is not sponsored by the organisation or runs these ghost tours, called AAPI Ghost Hunters and Paranormal Investigators. But I need to make mention on how fabulous the team are.