SPIRITED ENCOUNTER

THE old Townsville railway station has been declared haunted by paranormal investigators after an exhaustive seven- hour search.

Karina Looby led a team from Paranormal Investigators Townsville through the three- storey red brick structure on Flinders St last weekend.

She will now pore through 2000 digital photos and hours of video footage taken on infra- red and standard video cameras.

“It’s most definitely haunted, there’s something up there,” Ms Looby said.

“There were couldn’t get into.

“When we were standing outside, three of our team members saw a woman spirit walk across a balcony. “There was no one there. “Also in one of the conference rooms downstairs they saw her.

“There were a lot of noises that went on throughout the night.

“It’s hard to say what it certain areas we was. There were young children laughing, but no one was there.

“Hopefully we caught the evidence on camera so we can present it to Queensland Rail.”

Ms Looby said eight of the investigators had “experiences” at the station.

“We saw shadows and heard voices. No one was hurt,” she said.

“One of our investigators thought he saw someone sitting in a chair. But no one was there.”

She suspects many buildings in Townsville are haunted by “para- normal” beings. And she has plans to tour other buildings if given permission.

“We have more than 17,000 members and a lot of Townsville people message us through and say they know something,” Ms Looby said. “We get that information and then we approach them and try to validate it.”

The group started when Ms Looby moved to Townsville from Tasmania.

She said she grew up in a “haunted house” built in 1836.

“It had four spirits in it. I’ve always been around them.”

Ms Looby said she had an experience in Townsville after moving to the city in 2002.

“It got my interest up and I started a Facebook page.

“It started to tell people’s stories and then people started asking me to investigate houses.

“We also get permission from people and businesses in writing before doing an investigation.”

To find out more information about the group search for Paranormal Investigators Townsville on Facebook.

The group also conducts fortnightly night tours at the West End Cemetery.