I have to admit that I have spent quite a bit of time wandering around cemeteries, as I am sure many of you will admit to as well. My children as well have accompanied me on may of these visits and they became very good at finding names for me. My mother assured me that they would be forever mentally scarred by taking them to cemeteries. We they seem to have managed to overcome this burden and look back on these times fondly. I always said its the people that are alive that are a possible danger, not those who are dead.
Over the years some odd things have happened, none of a ghostly nature, which I would like to tell you about:-
The Ceremony
In 2005 my good friend, Sandy Duncan, and myself took a trip out to the ‘Old’ Boulder Cemetery. I had been asked by a friend who has a web site that shows the GPS coordinates of all cemeteries (Google Earth wasn’t so big in these days) to go to the cemetery and record the coordinates for him.
It was late in the afternoon in July and after we had recorded the details needed we went for a walk around the cemetery. It was a much more untidy and wild in those days, not the neat aspect it has now. After a short while a car pulled up in the small area near the fencing. Now the cemetery is a short drive from Boulder, and although not a great distance, it is still a little remote.
Out of the car got six young men, in their early 20’s I would think. We were a short distance from them and were taking some ‘atmospheric’ shots in the dusk well my friend was, Im a terrible photographer. They all got out of the car and proceed to a spot in the middle of the cemetery. The odd thing was though, although they could easily see us, they seem to be unaware of us being there or looked in our direction. The other strange thing was they weren’t speaking or making any sound.
They formed a circle with their backs to the middle facing outwards. They were about 30 meters away. They linked arms and stamped on the ground six times. They then turned around facing each other and stamped again six-times. They then stood in silence for a few minutes before each picking up a handful of dust and throwing it in the air.
We just stood still and watched the whole thing which ended in them trooping back to their car still having not acknowledging us and drove away. I’m afraid that we both just couldn’t stop laughing, it was just the most bizarre event. I have never been able to find out what they were doing and I always think about it when ever I visit the Boulder Cemetery.
Dangerous Fauna
If you have ever visited the Malcolm cemetery you will know that it has a big ‘sand’ problem. The ground often moves around with the wind and the headstone become buried. It can be there on one visit, and completely submerged on another. My husband and I had travelled out to the cemetery to take some photos for the web site and so some digging was required before the headstone could be seen. He was wandering about and I was scooping the sand away from a memorial. I first heard a grunting sound, I had never heard anything like it before. A deep grunting, getting louder and louder, till I turned around to see the biggest emu I have ever seen in my life. Gathered behind him were a dozen little chicks of various sizes. He had obviously taken exception to my being there and was one very angry emu. Jumping up far quicker than I thought I was able, I retreated around the back of the nearest headstone but he was not to be thwarted. He started to chase me and I don’t think I have ever ran so fast before or since. My husband rather belatedly came to my rescue and I was able to lose him and he went on his way. Since then I have been a little nervous of emus in general.
Grave in the Malcolm Cemetery. Blanche Louise CLIMIE
A Matter for the Police.
As I worked at the local courts I got to know lots of the local police offices. I wasn’t then too surprised to receive a call from an officer, except that he had a strange request. He said he had been told that I have lots of details on local cemeteries. I said that I did, and he asked in particular about the Kanowna Cemetery. I told him that there was no burial plan as such but some graves were located as they had headstones. He asked me if I would go to the cemetery and look at a grave at the very back and tell him if it was a ‘historic’ grave. He didn’t give any reasons for his enquiry and said that he couldn’t tell me any more.
So I went and found the grave in question at the very back of the cemetery against the rear fence. There is a bush track that leads around the back of this area and I could see that there had been a vehicle parked there and the scrub had been disturbed. The grave which was right on the fence line was neatly dug over with fresh dirt mounded up. The records that exist do show a burial in approximately this spot, but I couldn’t say exactly that spot. It did indeed look suspiciously like a new grave. Now the cemetery has been ‘closed’ for many years and no burials can take place there.
Kanowna Cemetery – William Alfred MONCRIEFF
I reported back to say that I didn’t know why the earth could be dug up. He then told me that they had arranged to have the plot probed with electronic equipment to see if there was anything beneath the ground. To this day I have no idea who or if they thought a ‘body’ had been buried there but the mystery was solved as far as the disturbed earth is concerned when a brand new headstone appeared on the plot, some 12 months later. The family had located the historic grave of an ancestor and had ‘tidied’ it up before leaving for Perth where they commissioned a plaque and memorial plate and brought it with them to put oin the grave on their next visit.
Do you have any strange or unexplained happening from any of your cemetery visits?? Would you like to share your story?? Do let me know.
Moya Sharp
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