Geelong’s spookiest stories: Victoria’s most haunted prison and an unexplained disappearance following a UFO sighting
The chilling final words from a pilot near Cape Otway describing a hovering metallic object make for one of our region’s spookiest tales. Read more in our Halloween special.
Geelong
Don't miss out on the headlines from Geelong. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As Halloween descends across Geelong on Sunday night, we take a look at two of Geelong’s spookiest tales. From what is described as the most haunted prison in Victoria, to a real-life UFO story that has remained unexplained after almost 50 years.
Pilot’s final words spark UFO mystery
Fred Valentich disappeared without a trace on October 21, 1978, shortly after turning south from Cape Otway in the Cessna plane he was flying to King Island.
While it was odd for both Fred and his plane to disappear completely – despite an extensive land and water search – it was Fred’s final words that have caused UFO believers to pore over his disappearance for almost half a century.
At 7.06pm Fred radioed Melbourne air traffic control asking if there were any other aircraft in his vicinity, as he described being followed by a long metallic, unidentified aircraft with four bright lights which at times moved at high speed or orbited above his plane, before reporting his engine was failing.
“It seems to me that he’s playing some sort of game,” he told air traffic control, as recorded in a 1978 Department of Transport Aircraft Accident Investigation report.
“He’s flying over me two, three times at a time at speeds I could not identify.
“As its flying past it’s a long shape … (cannot) identify more than (that it has such speed).
“It seems like its stationary. What I’m doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also its got a green light and sort of metallic (like) it’s all shiny (on) the outside.
“the engine is rough idling … the thing is (coughing).”
“That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again … It’s hovering and it’s not an aircraft.”
Those were the final words heard uttered by Fred Valentich, with 17 seconds of open microphone following, before transmission from his Cessna stopped.
The disappearance of Fred Valentich sparked many conspiracy theories, from alien abductions to a crash caused by inexperience and some going to far as to suggest he faked his death.
Conflicting accounts of the fateful trip added further mystery to the disappearance, with Fred telling some people he planned to go to King Island to pick up crayfish, while telling others he was picking up some friends – and King Island airport revealing he hadn’t informed them of his trip, which went against typical conventions.
It was also soon discovered Fred was an avid UFO conspiracy theorist, a belief which had also spread to his father Guido, who told the media his son was still alive and had been taken by a UFO.
“All I am worried about is that he was released in a different area, very far away from where he was taken,” he said at the time.
All that remains now of Frederick Valentich’s last flight is a plaque at Otway lighthouse commemorating his disappearance.
One of Australia’s most haunted buildings
VICTORIA’S longest running colonial jail enjoys another popular title – the state’s most haunted.
“Many fear this place because of the aggressive and violent nature of its hauntings,” paranormal hunter Tama Stockley warns as he enters the Old Geelong Gaol at the beginning of his docuseries ‘Into the Unknown’.
The crucifix-shaped prison on the corner of Myers and Swanston St is widely renowned as the city’s spookiest site, with its history helping lend some credence to the supernatural stories surrounding it.
The gaol was first built by the convicts and prisoners it would soon imprison, with the workers sleeping on high-security barges moored in Corio Bay when construction began in 1849.
Six murderers were executed at the gaol between 1854 and 1865, with prison records showing it’s youngest ever inmate as a 2-year-old in the 1860s.
While the gaol held prisoners all the way up to 1991, the CBD site also had a series of other functions during its history, including housing young boys and girls from 1868 to 1873 as an Industrial School for kids abandoned by their parents or living on the streets.
following the closure of the Industrial School the gaol earned a new nickname as ‘The Prison of the Ill’ – or the more facetious ‘Seaside Resort’ – as it became a hospital prison for the state, housing sick, elderly and disabled prisoners.
During World War II it served as a military detention barracks, holding almost 200 soldiers during its five years.
The Old Geelong Gaol’s extensive history of misery has led many paranormal experts to claim it is haunted, with business Twisted Histories even hosting popular ghost tours through the three-storey prison.
Speaking to the Geelong Advertiser in 2019 Australian Ghost investigators’ lead paranormal investigator Steve Ford said he’d seen paranormal experiences first-hand while leading tours at the Gaol.
“When it comes to experiences, I’ve seen anything from ghost haunts and people feeling pretty sickly,” he said. “We had one lady vomit — when there was nothing wrong with her beforehand.”
“We have had people say their hair got pulled, being touched and one girl who was scratched, so there have been some eerie and unexplained events happen at the Geelong Gaol.”
Ford said spirits would haunt locations such as the Gaol, as some had “unfinished business”, while others were stuck in the “human dimension” and some rare hauntings involved demons.
“A couple of psychic mediums have said there is the odd spirit that’s an entity — a demon being present, but it’s very rare,” he said.
“Basically where prisoners have been hung, there’s a fair bit of paranormal activity.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Geelong’s spookiest stories: Victoria’s most haunted prison and an unexplained disappearance following a UFO sighting
‘Just talkin’ with friends’: Man sprung driving 3km in wrong lane
A driver who said he was “just talkin’ with friends” and didn’t realise he was breaking the law has been whacked with a fine.
Charges expected over council corflute attacks
A well-known Geelong businessman is expected to be charged over damage to a council candidate’s corflutes.