The Spooky Side of Mount Lawley Golf Course
This comment was posted by Bree, who responded to this post:
Have any other ghost hunters investigated the Mt Lawley Golf Course, also in Australia? (Inglewood, Perth, Western Australia.) Mount Lawley Golf Course is dubbed ‘The Most Haunted Golf Course On Earth’. Similar paranormal activity reported there too - ‘celestial glows’, freakish apparitions and unnatural sensations of terror, coming from people not the least bit interested in ghosts! What’s really interesting about the haunting on the Mt Lawley Golf Course is that research uncovered an authentic, well supported historical incident of a tragic, very gruesome death on the golf course in mysterious circumstances in the early 1930s. All too often skeptics maintain that reports of tragic death’s at haunted locations aren’t authenticated. The tragedy at the Mount Lawley Golf Course is a matter of public record.
These links have some pics and more info:http://news.webshots.com/album/548794752CJlVes
http://community.webshots.com/user/mark_smeaton
A search turned up a post by the great granddaughter, who had insisted that the her great grandfather’s true identity be changed in order to protect his surviving family. You can read her post in the Ghostvillage.com forum, where she shares her own paranormal experiences while visiting. I read through the history section of the golf course’s website, but didn’t find any mention of a tragic death, let alone hauntings.
I couldn’t find any information about whether or not ghost hunters have investigated this place or not. Based on the affluent feel of the course’s website, I have my doubts that they would be allowed inside, given the potential for negative publicity. I could be wrong, but that’s my feeling.
Hi, Deborah - thanks for giving this genuinely creepy story some attention!
Admittedly my ex-boyfriend and I are responsible for the webshots gallery and yes, we know poor Michael’s great grand-daughter and his great-grandson too. We only changed Michael’s surname. He and his family lived in a house known as ‘Oakley House’, hence we used the name Oakley.
Needless to say we would delete the entire gallery in a heart-beat if anyone in the family asked us.
As you say the historical section of the Mt Lawley Golf Club’s website doesn’t mention Michael’s death and the bad publicity it created. However the great-grand-daughter who wrote that post on Ghostvillage.com forum told me she couldn’t help but ‘get a kick’ out of the fact that the site mentions it suffered ‘declining membership’ in 1930 - right after Michael’s death, early that year. (I don’t think she cares much for the club.)
One thing his great-grand-daughter left out of the post on Ghostvillage.com forum was that at the time there was doubt as to whether Michael’s death was a suicide or a murder. The coroner ruled it a suicide.
I’m sure you’re right that the club wouldn’t welcome the attention of ghost hunters. In fact, I know they don’t. We emailed them and unsurprisingly, got no reply.
By Bree Daniels on June 18th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Ah, my initial impression of that place was correct. I read about the decline in membership, which they blamed on the Depression. I wouldn’t care for that club either, if I were Michael’s great grand-daughter.
BTW, you’re welcome.
I’m always looking for some good stories to post on here. Thanks again for sharing.
By Deborah on June 19th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Hi Deborah. About the Mount Lawley Golf Club & Course: Just Don’t Call It Haunted!
I just thought I’d share with you some colourful correspondence I received over our former photo gallery, in which we never claimed to have any proof the Mount Lawley Golf Club, its course or its environs are haunted. We just repeated what we’d been told about paranormal activity there (without claiming it to be true), and gave you a brief outline of an almost 80 year old local tragedy which, in its time, created a minor media sensation.
You see, a few alleged ‘residents of Inglewood and Mount Lawley’ (I must stress, not Mount Lawley Golf Club members) were less than pleased with our other photo gallery.
So we temporarily deleted it.
We removed our other photo gallery after our email address appeared on another site and we were inundated with a surprising amount of hate email, not from any member of Michael’s family (I checked the IP’s), but from people claiming to live near the golf course. The hate emails accused us of:
‘invading the corporate feel of Walter Rd and their neighbourhood an [sic] being unfair on the residents of Walter Rd who life [sic] opoosite [sic] that golf course’.
My favourite hate email about our “Mount Lawley Golf
Course, Paranormal Photo Gallery” was this:
‘AS A [sic] INGLEWOOD AN [sic] MOUNT LAWLEY RESIDENT, BORN AN [sic] RAISED AS ONE MY WHOLE LIFE I WOULD LIKE TO TELL U THAT U ARE NOTHING BUT A BIGOT AND PREJDICED [sic] FREAK, A HUSTLER AND STREET PANHANDLER ON A PETRI DISH AND U [expletive] PEICE [sic] of [expletive] , U HAVE IMPALED USELF [sic] WITH YOUR OWN LIES. WE HEAR [sic] HAVE BUILD [sic] A CONFRONT AGAINST THE WORLD. DO U GET THE TOP MATHS SCORE OUT OF ANYONE IN THE WHOLE REGION? NO I DIDNT THINK SO EITHER. I KNOW U PROLLY USE IV DRUG USE [sic!].
THE MOUNT LAWLEY GOLF CLUB IS MORE BETTER THAN OTHER GOLF CLUB ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH. NOT THE MOST HAUNTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE BUILD, THEY ARE REALLY SUCCESSFUL U TRAILER PARK TRASH SUBSTANDARD BUFFOONERY AND PSYCHOS WHO BELEIVE [sigh, sic] IN PARANORMAL R CRAZY AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT. MEMBERS OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD CONGREGATION TOLD ME ABOUT YOUR HATE SITE U [expletive] PROSTITUTE AND U CANT LIBEL US, U HERE [sic]? U R NOT PROTECTED BY THE INTERNET. SO I”D THINK ABOUT IT AND ASK MYSELF SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS IF I WERE U. WHAT DO U THINK OF THAT U [expletive] BIGOTTED [sic] MORON????????????????????!
WE ARE GONNA FIGHT U AND WIN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!”
So. Once again, to any alleged Inglewood and Mount Lawley resident who live near a golf course ‘more better’ than any others on ‘the face of this earth’, we do not say the Mount Lawley Golf Club course on Walter Rd, Inglewood is haunted. We only have anecdotal evidence and unsubstantiated claims from a few people who’ve had un-nerving experiences there. We repeated some of their claims on our photo gallery, but we are not saying they are true.
Our new gallery, with Michael’s photo, is here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/whatreallyhappened
It’s called “Meet The Mount Lawley Club (REMEMBER NOT TO CALL IT HAUNTED!)”.
http://news.webshots.com/album/560419036GfkcvD
We’ll shortly be adding a small exerpt from a front page newspaper article from a 1930 newspaper soon. (We encountered scepticism over whether there was really any horrific death on the course or if we were just making it up or buying into an ‘urban legend’.)
Oh and we aren’t profiting from this in any way, shape or form. We aren’t offering ‘ghost tours’. Nor are we members of that golf club. We’re just very interested in the paranormal and feel that in the lexicon of alleged hauntings in Australia, this one has been sorely neglected.
Keep up the good work, Deborah. We continue to enjoy your site.
By Bree Daniels on August 24th, 2007 at 6:00 pm