2007... This is the year that the Australian Paranormal Investigation Unit began investigating the paranormal at Willow Court. So much has changed between back then and now. The group being new to field took a while to find it’s feet. Now ten years later with hundreds of investigations and thousands of hours of evidence review we decided it was time to put together a piece about us for all of you to get to know us a little bit better. This blog post and the accompanying biography video are here to do just that.
Who are we?
As you know we are the Australian Paranormal Investigation Unit are a paranormal research team based out of Hobart, Tasmania.
We have been investigating the paranormal as a part of personal, residential and businesses investigations, trying to find legitimate and concrete evidence of the question - “Is there Life after Death?” ... Our group has had many changes over the years. We have seen the addition of team members who have traveled part of the way on our epic journey and also left to follow journeys of their own. We have developed a strong philosophy, grown upon our values and morals and continue to strive to develop upon our skill set and techniques and endeavour to be their best that we can be both as individuals and as a part of the team.
## Our journey so far
Back when we started, we had individual blog posts including royalderwent.com and a live journal which were amalgamated into the Willow Court Project.
We also had an older version of our website which contained photos, videos and blog accounts of investigations that we had done and were continuing to do, but as the years went on, we felt that the quality of these videos were not up to the standard that we were wanting to present. Also with the years, our experiences, skills, techniques and professionalism had developed substantially, we felt that it was time for an updated look and presence on the web - this is why we no longer have our older investigations available for viewing to the public.
We have been really fortunate over the years to be invited to investigate some incredible locations including Willow Court and the Royal Derwent Hospital, Mauriceton, Rydges Hotel, Runnymede House, Franklin House and the Drunken Admiral just to name a few. We have also had the opportunity to be apart of tours and investigated places around Australia and the World including Monte Cristo, Q-Station, Aradale Mental Asylum and Waverley Hills Sanatorium.
## Where to Next.
We have recently started tours at the Willow Court Barracks Precinct called ‘After Dark Night Tours’. These tours have been a goal of ours to do for nearly the entire time we have been in existence. We wanted a way to show people the site, share its history and share our love for the site. The tours were a perfect way to do this. We had a trial tour back in 2011 encompassing the Morgue, Ladies Cottage and Nurses Cottage to get a feel for how we wanted our tours to be run. Even though they were successful, we felt that more research was needing to be done to craft the perfect blended tour of History and Paranormal Investigation. 5 year later, enter the After Dark Night Tours.
The current version of the After Dark Night Tours are of a small boutique style tour. We have kept it to 18 people only. This helps keep the tour unique and intimate, maximises engagement and minimises contamination for all patrons both with the guides and as a part of the Investigations.
The first tour in 2016, saw 18 lucky people be the first ever to be taken around the site on this type of tour. So far there has been $2500 raised for the Willow Court Restoration Fund, a fantastic effort considering there have only been 2 tours to date.
APIU will be running these tours and plan to have the tours evolve as we do and as the site itself evolves. APIU are also working on more locations to be running tours from, which is a really exciting venture for us to be bringing to the public.
We are also continuing to help families in their homes through our private residential investigations, continuing to investigate business and of course, our love affair with the Willow Court and Royal Derwent Sites. We will be involved with and investigating this site for as long as we possibly can. Though it is were we started, it definitely will not be where we end.