I am descended from a gold era mining family at Walhalla and have been a regular visitor to the town for many years. My parents purchased Spetts Cottage in 1978 and it is still in the family's ownership. Not long after it was purchased a previous owner who had lived at Spetts in the 1940s visited a number of times and recounted the story of Rhoda, one of the Spetts family daughters (the family built the house in 1871). She told me that on more than one occasion she had seen a woman dressed in a bridal costume in a corner of the garden - this was reputed to be Rhoda Spetts, who was supposed to have been married but her marriage never occurred. Rhoda is still reputed to walk the garden every November, still in her wedding gown.
Some other unaccounted sightings (or hearings?) at Spetts:
- A neighbour who was camping in a tent stayed at Spetts one night during a violent storm. The morning after he claimed that his bed was turned upside down, and vowed never to set foot in that room again;
- One night many years ago the family went to bed and soon after, the gate to the footbridge across the creek was heard to open and footsteps were clearly heard walking across the bridge. It was a full moon and quite bright...I went out to investigate but heard or saw nothing - the town was virtually deserted midweek.
- On one occasion, a family member awoke to see a large cloud of mist hovering over the bed - it soon disappeared.
- Various rattles and mutterings have been heard during the night.
- Visitors to the house have often commented about a feeling of "being watched" when outdoors at night.
However, most of the after dark noises are caused by possums jumping on the roof and screeching, which does sound quite scary to the uninitiated!
http://www.paranormal.com.au/public/index.php?topic=61.0
