How the Saint Johns Research Project came about
In the mid 1990's writer and researcher Kevin McNeil read a book entitled "True Ghosts" by Valerie Laughton. published in 1991. One ghost story caught Kevin's attention, an incident that took place at the Saint Johns cemetery in 1980.
This is the ghost story that started it all:
"In 1980 fourteen students from Kapunda went to Saint Johns Cemetery and reformatory at night. They heard a rumbling, bumping sound; they saw a marble slab move back from one the graves. they could not see any ropes or wires attached and saw nothing emerge. The vases began to move and the flowers were flug into the air. The students saw a semi-transparent girl with a long white gown, with long dark hair carrying a hurricane lantern that had a yellowish glow moving through the cemetery. Grave stones could be seen through her. the figure glided through a fence and headed towards the old reformatory ruins. She entered the ruins moving through the rooms and passageway and could be seen by the students through the broken windows. After a period of time the figure headed back down the hill and back to the cemetery. She rose from the ground and her feet could be seen , she thinned into a yellowish-white light and spun herself and drove speedy into the earth. The students worked up the courage and slowly moved into the area were the ghostly figure disappeared. They found a circular spot with strange markings imprinted into the soil."
This was the start of a long quest that began in 1995 by Kevin McNeil to find the truth about this strange ghost story that was supposedly witnessed by a group of school students from Kapunda. Kevin Who lives in country Victoria made many trips to Kapunda to piece together this mystery. He interviewed many people, spent endless hours in libraries going through old records. like-minded individuals in Kapunda also became involved and assisted Kevin with his research.
In 2000 Kevin' wrote a manuscript based on his research on kapunda's Haunting that included Saint Johns. This caught the eye of Warwick Moss (Australian actor and the host of the 1990's "The extraordinary") who turned it in to a documentary titled "The Most Haunted Town in Australia", in September 2001 and introduced Australia to Kupunda and Saint Johns.
In late 2003 Alison Oborn and I met Kevin McNeil for the first time through a mutual friend. Kevin had been researching Saint Johns for a number of years by this stage but wanted to work with people with field experience and would be able to conduct on site investigations. We had a long chat that night and from that meeting PFI became involved with the Saint Johns research project. Since that meeting PFI have conducted many investigations and I became more involved with the background research. Even after I left PFI in late 2006 I have been conducting background research on Saint Johns.
Alison and I knew about Saint Johns before we met Kevin as we too watched the documentary. As part of another investigation team in 2001 we went to Saint Johns. We found it impossible to conduct any type of investigation or even observe the site as it was full of budding ghost hunters wandering through the site. On the same night there was a wild party being held in the old reformatory ruins by a group of irresponsible and drunk individuals. they were yelling, smashing bottles and abusing anyone who came close the old ruins. Alison and I decided not to return to the Saint Johns site until 2003 as apart of PFI.
The Saint Johns phenomena that had such Hubble beginnings, a story in a ghost book has now become a world wide phenomena. But now it is time for FACT to take over from FICTION and the factual story to be told.
This is the ghost story that started it all:
"In 1980 fourteen students from Kapunda went to Saint Johns Cemetery and reformatory at night. They heard a rumbling, bumping sound; they saw a marble slab move back from one the graves. they could not see any ropes or wires attached and saw nothing emerge. The vases began to move and the flowers were flug into the air. The students saw a semi-transparent girl with a long white gown, with long dark hair carrying a hurricane lantern that had a yellowish glow moving through the cemetery. Grave stones could be seen through her. the figure glided through a fence and headed towards the old reformatory ruins. She entered the ruins moving through the rooms and passageway and could be seen by the students through the broken windows. After a period of time the figure headed back down the hill and back to the cemetery. She rose from the ground and her feet could be seen , she thinned into a yellowish-white light and spun herself and drove speedy into the earth. The students worked up the courage and slowly moved into the area were the ghostly figure disappeared. They found a circular spot with strange markings imprinted into the soil."
This was the start of a long quest that began in 1995 by Kevin McNeil to find the truth about this strange ghost story that was supposedly witnessed by a group of school students from Kapunda. Kevin Who lives in country Victoria made many trips to Kapunda to piece together this mystery. He interviewed many people, spent endless hours in libraries going through old records. like-minded individuals in Kapunda also became involved and assisted Kevin with his research.
In 2000 Kevin' wrote a manuscript based on his research on kapunda's Haunting that included Saint Johns. This caught the eye of Warwick Moss (Australian actor and the host of the 1990's "The extraordinary") who turned it in to a documentary titled "The Most Haunted Town in Australia", in September 2001 and introduced Australia to Kupunda and Saint Johns.
In late 2003 Alison Oborn and I met Kevin McNeil for the first time through a mutual friend. Kevin had been researching Saint Johns for a number of years by this stage but wanted to work with people with field experience and would be able to conduct on site investigations. We had a long chat that night and from that meeting PFI became involved with the Saint Johns research project. Since that meeting PFI have conducted many investigations and I became more involved with the background research. Even after I left PFI in late 2006 I have been conducting background research on Saint Johns.
Alison and I knew about Saint Johns before we met Kevin as we too watched the documentary. As part of another investigation team in 2001 we went to Saint Johns. We found it impossible to conduct any type of investigation or even observe the site as it was full of budding ghost hunters wandering through the site. On the same night there was a wild party being held in the old reformatory ruins by a group of irresponsible and drunk individuals. they were yelling, smashing bottles and abusing anyone who came close the old ruins. Alison and I decided not to return to the Saint Johns site until 2003 as apart of PFI.
The Saint Johns phenomena that had such Hubble beginnings, a story in a ghost book has now become a world wide phenomena. But now it is time for FACT to take over from FICTION and the factual story to be told.