Montville has been possessed by a haunted history museum guaranteed to frighten
By Kirra Livingstone
THE Spooky Hollow Haunted History Museum in Montville officially creaked open its doors on October 17, offering one of Australia’s first haunted history museums, full of real artefacts from around the world from some of the darkest periods of history.
Montville local Cameron Bayliss has been working professionally as a Medium and Psychic for 14 years, touring Australia’s most haunted locations, including jails, asylums and cemeteries. After many years of helping people reconnect with loved ones who have passed and doing shows across the country, he wanted to fulfill his lifelong dream of opening a haunted history museum.
“I’ve been for 14 years, touring Australia, doing shows and events, seen over 100,000 clients offering spiritual guidance, grief counselling, helping people get through tough times in their life,” he said.
“Living with the dead from a very young age, I’ve always been able to see, hear, feel, people on the other side. “I’ve been doing history and ghost tours around Australia, so I thought I’m going to bring it all into one place.”
The museum features a haunted hollywood section, a room with medieval torture devices, a true crime room, a gallery as well as various haunted history items, ensuring there is something for everyone.
“I would like people to come in because they’ve got an interest in the history, or the paranormal, learning something that they may not know or see something that they love or are passionate about,” Cameron said.
“Some people like the bone room or the horrible history of 1945 Germany; they might like the personal stories in the Victorian room.
“Or they may have a fascination with true crime, serial killers like Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, or the electric chair.” Cameron said his favourite piece in the museum is related to the kidnapping of Charley Ross, the first kidnapping for ransom in the 1800s.
“I like a lot of different things in different rooms. “I have a missing person bottle from the Charley Ross kidnapping, it was the first time a face had been placed on something to help find a missing person, so essentially, it was the first ever missing person poster.
“It’s actually where the saying ‘don’t take candy from strangers’ comes from originally.” Throughout his extensive career, Cameron says his scariest experience isn’t from his psychic medium experiences, but from the day before the opening.
“It’s like a daily occurrence for me when I say something to someone and they ask how I knew that, or they come back and tell me it came true,” he said.
“The weirdest thing that has ever happened to me was last night, when my partner was looking at our Ned Kelly mannequin, and his eyes moved, scaring us both. I am a ‘I will believe it when I see it’ type of a guy and not much freaks me out, but that freaked me out”.
The Spooky Hollow Haunted History Museum offers private tours and events, as well as having the museum open to the public. Private tours and special events are advertised on the Spooky Hollow Facebook page.
The museum is open Thursday to Monday from 10.00 a.m. Entry is $25 per person and is an 18+ venue to the nature and content within Spooky Hollow.
For more information, please visit the facebook page at: facebook.com/spookyhollowtours.