My following story is about my visit to the famous Fremantle Prison, Western Australia in 2009 when I was around the age of 14. I attended the 'Torchlight Tour' with my best friend and her mother. The Torchlight Tour runs for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and is completely in the dark - all you have is a small torch that the tour guides hand out to you. Before I get started, I'll give you a little history (copy & pasted from Wiki) about the building, and then I'll tell you about our experience. Please feel free to do some researching of your own if you'd like more of a background.
"The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners. It closed as a prison in 1991 and reopened as a historic site. It is now a public museum, managed by the Government of Western Australia with daily and nightly tours being operated. Some tours include information about the possible existence of ghosts within the prison. There are also tours of the flooded tunnels and aqueducts under the prison."
Back then, I wasn't very informed of the paranormal and quite frankly, I was a bit of a skeptic. I had heard that Fremantle Prison was quite haunted and very notorious for sightings of apparitions. I eagerly wanted to experience some kind of ghost for myself to put my skepticism to rest. We toured Fremantle Prison because it was my friend's mum's idea. She thought it'd be a fun little outing for us as she liked to keep us entertained and interested.
This tour (from what I remember) was around the winter months so it took place at 6:30 pm and being winter, it was dark by then. I had a Sanyo digital camera - the basic kind - that I had brought along in the hopes to try and capture something out of the ordinary. I'll just note that since this was five years ago, I can't remember every single area we were shown but I have vivid memories of the places I do remember seeing and being in. So if you've ever had a tour and mine seems off as to which areas were entered first, I apologize for my poor memory. I've tried remembering what each area was called but, I'm still unsure and can't be bothered doing tons of reading to research it.
We were waiting for the tour group to be called (as we got there quite early) so my friend and I were sitting on a low rock wall, mucking around just near the entrance to the prison grounds. I remember taking a few silly snaps together and taking random shots of the entrance here and there, reviewing them with my friend to see if we had discovered anything in the photos. Nothing came up - yet.
The tour guide yells out for the group to gather and get prepared. He pulls out a large box full of little black torches and says "These are yours to keep as a souvenir to remember your time here". As each person in the group took a torch, we entered the block. I think it was one of those rooms where they search the convicts, strip them and give them prison attire to wear. There was a long locker-room type bench big enough for the whole group to sit on. The tour guide told us to find a seat then proceeded to tell us a little history, what we can expect from the tour and basic rules.
The first room in the building we entered was what I believe to be a kitchen. It had these huge, metal type containers and I don't remember if we were told what they were used for. I took a couple of snaps and followed the group to the next area. I believe the next place we were shown was the courtyard leading to all the other areas of the prison. The tour guide stopped and gave us some more history as I snapped pictures of each section of the courtyard, including a picture of the guide. He then led us to the main cell block which felt super eerie and cold.
Above us was what the prison named the 'Suicide Net'. As there were numerous cells on different levels, it was popular for inmates to throw themselves off the side and fall to their death. It took two years for the government to install the 'Suicide Net' so as you could imagine, prisoners were still launching themselves over the railing. As the guide was telling us about the stories, a dummy appeared out of nowhere with the net catching its fall. Most of the group were quite jumpy, as you could imagine.
Exploring deeper into the block, the tour guide told us about artwork that the convicts had done on their cell walls. We weren't allowed to take photos of the art with flash on because it can fade the paint. I took pictures of the other cells in the hopes of capturing something paranormal. After we toured the cells, we moved out to another courtyard for where the inmates would go daily to stretch their legs.
The next thing we came across was the whipping post in another sectioned outdoor area. The tour guide explained it would be used to punish convicts by whipping/lashing them and then covering the convicts with salt. The guide asked for a volunteer and being the weird child that I was, raised my hand immediately. Giggling like an idiot, I gave my friend the camera and asked her to take photos of me while the tour guide demonstrated the punishment procedure. I remember that I couldn't stop laughing as he was showing the demonstration.
In the courtyard, there was a freedom mural that was painted by an inmate. It was beautiful; a sunset behind a beautiful field of lush green grass and tall trees. The tour guide then proceeded to show us death row (to which I snapped a picture before we entered) when an actor wearing prison attire popped out of one of the cells and scared the living poop out of all of us. He then explained the history on death row while each of us briefly popped our heads in the cells before our guide then took us to the gallows.
The gallows felt extra eerie. Seeing the rope and the open trap-door was super creepy. I took a couple of snaps before the guide stopped to tell us about the convicts who were hanged. After that, we went to the church. This area felt almost frantic as if it were full of people (noting that Torchlight Tour groups are less than 35 people) even though the church was very spacious. I took a few photos of the cross then sat down on the bench to rest with my friend and her mum. As we took in the atmosphere, I turned around to take more pictures. After the church, I can't remember any other areas.
We got back to my friend's house rather late (the prison is quite far from where we live) and were extremely tired. Before we decided to hit the sheets, I thought it'd be a good idea to review all of the pictures I had taken. A few silly pictures of my friend and I, a few of the entrance to the prison and some rather odd photos. The first odd photo was in the kitchen of the big metal tubs. In between the two tubs were these perfectly round different-coloured orbs - about 4 or 5 - some of them transparent and some of them full. They were all different sizes. The next photo was of the tour guide in the courtyard. Above him looked like what I assumed to be the moon, but with zooming in and inspecting further, it was transparent. It was almost like a creamy colour.
The photo after that was of a random spot in the courtyard, the creepiest of the entire series. There in that photo stood a man in what looked like a white doctor's coat. You could barely see his facial features but I could make out that he had glasses. He was completely transparent and only his head, shoulders and torso could be seen. He had no legs in this picture but you can see his long coat hanging freely. Next to him was a large transparent orb that had almost like a green aura around it.
The rest of the photos had a substantial amount of orbs, it was crazy! Numerous sizes, colours & transparency. The most orbs were in the church, floating around the cross. Maybe that's why it felt rather 'crowded' in there? Maybe that's where all the souls of the prisoners took solace? Unfortunately, I deleted these photos off my camera after having them for a few years. I didn't feel the need to have them anymore but I highly regret it now after thinking about my experience the other day. It would of been great to share the photos with you all, especially the one of the doctor!
I apologize if this was a rather long submission but thank you so much for reading.
I recommend you search for some images of the Prison and take a look at some of the orb pictures taken by other visitors.
Rach <3
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