MILPARINKA, a town established during the gold-rush of the 1880s, experienced a short lived heyday before being abandoned, left to fall in decay and becoming another Outback ghost town.
But it’s a ghost town for more than just its lack of human residents, with a well documented history of ghosts inhabiting the town, and in particular, the rooms of the Albert Hotel.
Countless tales of sightings have been posted on internet forums, with one woman, only identified as Laticia, sharing her experience on a ghost-sighting blog called Castle of Spirits.
“I’ve had many ghost experiences in my life, but the Albert Hotel ghosts are the ones I tend to remember the most, probably because I have actually seen them clear as day,” she wrote.
She goes on to the story of waking up in the middle of the night in her hotel room at the hotel, to find herself being watched by what she describes as an “old lady”.
“I woke up several times in the night as I felt a bit freaked out like something was watching me!” Laticia wrote.
“I woke up to find a figure of an old lady dressed in 20th century clothing standing in the doorway of our room; she was just looking at us like she was checking in on her kids or something.
“I thought I was dreaming at the time so I closed my eyes then opened them again and she was still there. I did this a few more times and nope, it wasn’t my imagination.”
To cynics and non-believers, this story may sound a bit far-fetched, but Laticia isn’t the only person to have this experience.
Many pub-goers shared their tales of ghost-sightings in the town, and more specifically, in the hotel, when they visited for dinner last Friday night.
“There’s a particular chill in room six,” they said while telling their stories of sightings around a table in the pub’s main bar.
Bec Young, the Albert Hotel’s owner for 30 years, said not only has she heard countless ghost stories from visitors over the years, but she’s also seen ghosts herself.
“The first time I saw it, I saw this head pop up through the window and I was like, what?” she said.
“Max, my son, he was meant to be in bed. I thought, is that Max out there? It wasn’t Max, it was a ghost.
“I’ve seen it since. I had a governess for three and a half years, and she saw it for the first time and looked at me and absolutely freaked out.
“I knew straight away, I said, ‘You’ve seen it haven’t you?’”
Ms Young said the most common sighting she’s heard is of the “old lady”, presumably the same old lady that Laticia wrote about.
“There was a lady who worked here years ago, she cooked here,” Ms Young said.
“And she saw a lady in a black skirt, white shirt. She would see this lady in room six. I’ve never seen anyone in room six, but I know there is one bed in there that no matter how many times you make the bed all smooth, you go in there and it looks like someone has been sitting on the bed.”
Ms Young said when she first took over the pub, she was scared of the ghosts, but generally now she doesn’t mind the company.
“It used to freak me out but no so much any more,” she said.
“There was probably only one night I was really scared. I was vacuuming late at night, and I just got this feeling. I just dropped the vacuum on the spot and went home to bed.”
Ms Young said she’s tried to rationalise the experience and come up with conclusions for what they could be other than something of the supernatural variety, but she can’t find an answer.
“I’ve tried to find explanations for things,” she said.
“But things happen that are just inexplicable.”
