S03 Episode 5: Banggerreng

albirds dot com. That's allbrds dot com. The small town of Humpty Dow, located just forty kilometers to the southeast of Darwin in North Australia, is thought to get its name from the term humpty dumpty, a phrase adopted in local vernacular to mean upside down. A fitting name perhaps, for like most of the country, the place sits squarely on an intersection of worlds. For, of course, it wasn't always known as hump dey Do, the country not always

known as Australia. The first people to arrive here are thought to have done so over fifty thousand years ago, their descendants, the Larakia people, eventually settling in the area and living out a mostly peaceful existence in harmony with the elements of their world, taking only what they needed and fighting only to defend the territory that was crucial to their survival. Unbeknownst to the Larakia, however, there was another world occupying the exact same space as theirs, and

one day it would begin to press in. Some knew of this place, already a place populated by people similar in some way but different in others. As they will discover, it is a place made not by Mangaraha or Nangan Burah, but by God Almighty. And it is a place where time and space is a very different thing. In this new world, it is the year eighteen thirty nine. Unlike that of the Larakia, its concept of land is not to see it as a shifting and breathing compatriot, but

rather as something to be owned, worked and dominated. Slowly, over the years, this new world will in many ways supersede that of the Larakia. The clash of perspectives an ever continuing and controversial work in progress. But while our species battles amongst itself in its constant negotiation of worlds, it is not only each other's human worlds we encroach on,

but those of things far more ancient. You need only take a short journey from the city of Darwin into the surrounding swamplands to find creatures with little concern for our conflicting stories and stories of conflict. They're camouflaged crocodile eyes, quietly observing all from as far back as two hundred million years ago. And what of the many other things hidden from view? Perhaps whoever we think we are, we will always be at the whim of unseen and unknown forces.

You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McClane Smith. Like most of the surrounding area of Darwin, Humpty Dew sees little rainfall in the major winter months of June, July and August, but as summer approaches, an invisible movement plays out that come the new year will bring vast changes. As the land absorbs the heat radiating from the sun, so too to the molecules in the air above it,

sending them higher into the atmosphere. As they rise, Warm and humid airs over tropical oceans are drawn silently into the space, as if from nowhere. Thick dark shapes begin to materialize and swirl about in the sky, growing thicker and darker, until finally the unrelenting torrent of monsoon is unleashed. Some call it the wet others know it as the

season of good joke. Come January, the rains can fall for twenty days of the month, delivering over four meters of water from the skies and with it some of the most dramatic and spine tingling thunderstorms you are ever likely to witness, much like the one being watched by five friends as they sit on their porch outside their home at ninety Mukmin's Drive, a modest but well kept four bedroom bungalow located just off the road at the end of a seventy meter gravel driveway, surrounded by a

high wire fence and shrouded by trees. The property also boasted a decent sized swimming pool, as well as a large garage and outdoor bar area where the friends are currently gathered. In short, it was the perfect home for the young North Territorians. It is late January nineteen ninety eight and the friends are sipping on beer, enjoying each other's coy immersed in the spectacle unfolding before them. Sunset has colored the clouds into a wash of indigo and orange.

From somewhere within them, a primal guttural rumble emerges, reverberating for miles around, followed by a sudden and vicious cracking. A pulsing of neon purple is followed by a crooked trail of electric blue leaping out from the clouds, scorching dendrite lines in the sky. Kirsty yelps with delight as another distant fork of lightning shoots down to the ground.

Her partner, Andrew, a driller for the construction industry, sits beside her, along with their friends Jill, who worked in a local shop, and her partner Dave, a mechanic, and Murph, who worked as a commercial fisherman. Kirsty and Andrew were also proud parents to ten months old old Jasmine, who was currently lying sound asleep inside the house. As they continued to sit and enjoy the storm, the rain pelting down with ever greater intensity, Andrew gave a sudden cry

of surprise. What was that? He said, as a pebble came to rest at his feet. Suddenly the whole group were being pelted by tiny stones. Some hitting their bodies, with others just clattering against the patio floor. The stones, about a centimeter in diameter, looked identical to the pieces

of gravel that lined their driveway. The five looked about urgently for any sign of a culprit, suspecting that some practical jokers were playing a trick on them, with Kirsty and Andrew especially concerned since Jasmine was alone in the house. Dave and Mirth stepped out into the rain for a better look, but with its starting to get dark, there had little chance of spotting anything. A moment later, with the onslaught having stopped, the group returned to the verandah,

only for it to immediately start up again. Entire fistfuls of pebbles flung into them from indiscernible directions. Tiring of whatever prank was being pulled, the group shouted into the surrounding darkness, vowing to teach the culprit's a lesson, before eventually deciding to continue their evening inside the house. Leading the group into the bungalow, Kirsty stepped into the kitchen

and froze in horror. The pebbles were everywhere, scattered all over the kitchen table, the worktops, and across the floor. In a panic, she ran to check on Jasmine, but found her thankfully sound asleep, unaware of any intrusion. The others made a quick check of their home but found no sign of any one. And then it started again. Andrew saw the first one as it came to rest on the carpet at his feet, followed by another, then another, until there was a shower of pebbles dropping all about them.

Yelling for whoever it was to cut it out, The tenants soon realized, with all the doors and windows closed, that they were the only people inside the building. The stones, which could only have come from outside, were bone dry, despite the torrential downpour, and they appeared to be materializing out of thin air. Thinking they might somehow be coming from the loft, Dave removed the cover to the attic and poked his head into the space, only to be

showered again by pebbles tumbling down from somewhere above. But yet again there was nobody there. Ducking for cover, Andrew and Kirsty retreated to their bedroom, gasping in surprise when they saw the bed. It was also covered in pebbles, but that was only the beginning. Over the next few days, the housemates were terrorized, with a number of implements seemingly being thrown around the house by an unseen force. A CD player was wrenched from the wall and smashed on

the floor. Ashtrays were sent shooting through the rooms, smashing into pieces against the walls. By the following week, the housemaids agreed that something must be done. None of them were particularly religious, but rather than risk ridicule by alerting the authorities, they turned first to the local church for help, who agreed to send some one out to the house the following day. That night, Kirsty and Andrew lay in bed, keeping an eye on their daughter, Jasmine, asleep in a

nearby cot. Moments later, with the lights off and Andrew now snoring softly beside her, Kirsty heard a strange noise emanating from out of the dark of the room. It was the sound of something scratching, perhaps a critter outside, she thought, until slowly it grew louder and closer, sounding for all the world like it was creeping along the wall towards her. Now, who scared to move, Kirsty could only listen with terror as the source of the noise

continued to draw near, the sound getting louder. The movement of it was unmistakable. It was as if somebody was crawling through the wall, and then it stopped. Kirsty hurriedly switched on the light, but found only her partner and daughter in there with her. The only sound the gentle breathing of baby Jasmine and the softly snoring Andrew. When father, Stephen Desza arrived the following day, he found the tenants

severely sleep deprived and deeply upset. After being welcomed into the house, Desuza had only just turned to walk out of the kitchen when someone shouted for him to duck. Turning back, he was horrified to see a stake knife being straight toward him. He threw his hands up to protect himself, only to see the knife stop in mid air and fall straight to the floor without a bounce. It was as if it had connected with something invisible

standing right in front of him. After witnessing a number of similar incidents that morning, to Suzer was convinced that a restless spirit had been unleashed in the house, perhaps drawn there by one of the tenants. It was to Salz's opinion that, unbeknownst to themselves, this tenant was a natural medium, unable to offer much more than prayer. The priest assured the housemates that whatever it was would leave them soon. The next day, as if de Soza's reassuring

presence had been enough, the bizarre activity ceased. Three days later, however, it was back. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video.

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Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash unexplained podcast now thoroughly spooted by Dosza's conclusion. At the first sign of further activity, the tenants wasted little time in contacting the church again, but this time local parish priest Tom English agreed to assist them. Like Desoza, Within moments of his arrival, English was treated to a

barrage of flying objects sent whizzing about his head. As English would later remark, each object came flying across rooms or through doorways, with no one remotely near wherever they must have come from. Things took a more ominous turn when English felt something flop onto his foot and looked down to find a pistol cartridge coming to rest on the carpet. English instinctively reached for his Bible and began

to read from the Book of Psalms. Then, as he gently intoned the words, he reached with his free hand into his pocket and pulled out a vial of holy water. Unscrewing the bottle with his fingers, He proceeded to flick it into the corners of the room. A loud crash was heard as another ashtray smashed and splintered against the wall, fragments of glass littering the floor. On he continued throughout

the house, making sure to bless every room. At each flick of the water, another crash would be heard, followed by the appearance of random objects on the floor, spanners, batteries, spark plugs, and more bullets. Reverent English left the flatmates with a cruise affix and a bible, completely dumb struck by what he had seen. Some days they would be treated to a single incident, sometimes nothing at all. Other days the tenants would be forced to endure a bombardment

of articles for hours at a time. Strangely, they were never hurt by any of the objects, and any that did hit them would only ever do so with the lightest of touches. As the end of March approaches, the rains are beginning to lighten, the floodwaters beginning to recede, and the skies starting to clear. What follows is the season of bangar Rang, the time of great storms before

the relative calm of the coming winter months. Since everything had begun The tenants had been cautious, only to talk to close friends about their experiences, weary of what others might think. In late March, they invite a couple, Annette and Lloyd, over to the house to witness the events for themselves. They will not be disappointed. Almost immediately, they are bombarded by objects that ricochet through the house. Then a strange rustling noise alerts the group to movement in

the hallway. Stepping through to investigate, they find a large cross and what looks like a trident made from a pile of pebbles on the floor. Dave approaches it, noticing something especially peculiar. The pebbles are stacked in rows on top of each other, as if something were holding them in place. Slowly he bends down to touch them, but at the moment of contact, something extraordinary occurs. The stones scatter in every direction, flying off against the walls and

down the hallway. Though all of this was undoubtedly strange, the housemates had by now become accustomed to the peculiar events, and although unnerved at times, they had never felt truly threatened by what they had seen. But all that was about to change. One morning in early April, with storm winds swirling and battering against the outside of the house.

Andrew has just made his way into the shower when he notices something unexpected on the floor, a pile of pebbles fashioned with some precision into the word car, and next to it another word made from an assemblance of scrabble block that spelt out skin. Unsure what the two words could mean, Andrew heads off to inform the others, wandering into the living room to find Kirsty staring aghast at something recently scrawled onto the wall. Fire and help.

And there is one final word, but Mirth hadn't needed to see it to know what it all meant, and when the others saw it, they understood too. There on the wall, scrawled in dark blue ink, was a name Troy. Earlier that year, on the seventeenth of January nineteen ninety eight, shortly before the strange events began, Mirth's best friend, Troy Radats, had been driving with another friend in a loaded with

paint thinner barely two kilometers from ninety mcminn's drive. The vehicle was involved in a crash, resulting in a catastrophic explosion, immersing the car in a ball of flame. The twenty four year old Troy and his passenger were burned alive, but as Murth was quick to spot, something about the name was off. Troy spelt his name with an O U and a Y. Whoever wrote this message had left out the U. Deeply troubled by the latest turn in events,

the friends discussed everything that night. Could it really be the spirit of their deceased friend, concluding that surely Troy would know how to spell his name. Their relief at realizing it wasn't their friend was only a temporary one. After all. If it wasn't Troy, then who or what was it. Despite the housemate's best efforts to keep the strange events to themselves, it wasn't long before the local media got wind of the apparent poltergeist terrorizing the occupants

of ninety Mukmen's Drive. Two reporters from the local paper, The Litchfield Times arrived to interview the residence and within minutes were showered in pebbles raining down on them from inside the house. However, when they published their article, Kirsty Andrew, Dave, Jill and Mirth's worst fears were realized. Not only were they ridiculed, for their troubles, but few were willing to

believe they hadn't staged the whole thing for publicity. Worst for Kirsty were those who criticized her as a stay at home mother for allowing such a charade to continue. The article had also attracted the attention of their landlords, who soon after turned up at the property. Horrified to find the place in such a state of disarray. With little patience for their tenants outlandish explanation for the mess,

their landlords demanded they vacate the premises immediately. The magistrate's court were similarly unsympathetic, but luckily for the tenants, upheld their right to stay after it was established that the house itself hadn't been damaged, only the private property of the residence. When producers of the pill Sydney based Channel seven show Today to Night contacted the housemates around the same time, it seemed the perfect opportunity to prove the

skeptics wrong. Though some suggested that two thousand dollar fee they received in return had been more of a motivating factor, four hundred dollars apiece seemed scant consolation for putting themselves out there once more. Over the course of five days, a two person camera crew, along with program presenter Greg Quayle, two Darwin based camera operators Danny simm and Jared City, and Sydney journalist Max Anderson, kept a constant vigil at

the property. Their initial intention had been to expose what they assumed to be a hoax, but would soon be forced to change their approach. Like other visitors before them, they were treated to a host of strange phenomen from falling pebbles to flying cutlery and smashed glass. Not once did they see any of the house's residence initiating it. However, despite the hours of footage they recorded, neither did they manage to catch the phenomena in action, but they did

find something intriguing. A building maintenance expert was flown in to conduct thermal imaging of the objects in the moment after they were thrown. Ordinarily, an object thrown by human hands would show residual heat marks where the fingers had been. What they found instead, time after time was a uniform heat that covered the entirety of the object. After a week of filming, Sym and Sootie stayed on to capture more footage while the best of the team went home.

When the Channel seven crew returned to their offices, chief editor Jimmy Hamilton found them spooked and unsettled by the experience. A few days later, the first part of the show aired. It portrayed an every day bunch of flatmates seemingly besieged by a series of strange happenings, with Quail vowing to find the ultimate proof of it. In the following episode. When the editor reviewed the next batch of footage, however,

everything changed. Jim Sootie had finally captured some action on camera, a plastic pot lid that had flown across the family room and collided with the far wall. Only Kirsty had been present in the room at the time, standing to the side quietly folding clothes. Looking back at the footage at the moment lid appeared, the editor had caught sight of something reflected in a mirror at the far side

of the shot. It was Kirsty, who had almost imperceptibly flinched just before the lid came into view, fearing they had been made to look like fools. When the second show aired, it was a somewhat different piece that claimed Kirsty as the orchestrator of a hoax. Later, Quail, admittedly exasperated by the revelation, called Kirsty and demanded to know, in no uncertain terms if she had been responsible. Quail will later say that she eventually confessed that she was.

Although after the airing of To Day to Night's second episode, he were quick to draw a line under the events alleged to have occurred at ninety mcminn's drive, a few more details had yet to come to light. Channel seven may have washed their hands of the tenants, but it seemed whatever was plague in them had little intention of doing the same. According to researchers Tony Healy and Paul Cropper, the apparent poltergeist activity continued for some time after the

film crew had left. When they spoke to Kirsty about her conversation with Quail, she maintained that she never once admitted to being responsible for the activity. Healy and Cropper would themselves go on to witness an assortment of strange things, along with a number of journalists who also visited the property. Nicky Voss, chief of staff at the Northern Territory News, together with her camera operator, had been hit by pebbles in the back of their neck, despite both standing against

the wall at the time. While interviewing Kirsty, ABC reporter Tracy Ferrar, a trained technician, claimed to have received electric shocks from the microphone and even described witnessing a TV remote being lifted unaided into the air. I know what I saw, she would later tell fellow journalist Frank Robson of the Sydney Morning Herald, and it wasn't a hoax.

Jim Soutie, who had been in the room with Kirsty when he caught the footage of the controversial flying lid slamming into a wall, maintained that she hadn't thrown anything at all. Journalist Frank Robson would also witness the same extraordinary goings on, finding no evidence that it had been perpetrated by the house it's residence, and there was one

final revelation. Although it is true that nothing peculiar had occurred at the house before Troy Raddatz's death in early January, if you were looking at that for an explanation, it was also about this time that Kirsty, Jasmine and Andrew moved into the property. It wouldn't be until some time after the escalation of events at mcminn's drive that Andrew had ever given it much thought, though the flatmates maintained

Kirsty was not deliberately responsible. It had happened before, back when Kirsty and Andrew had lived in Bachelor, a town sixty od kilometers south of Humpty. The pair had then also been plagued by hailing stones, but had put it down to local kids messing about. Some time after, Andrew took a job working a drill on a construction site in the coastal suburb of Gosford in New South Wales. At some point one of the workers had entered the mess to grab a coffee mug, only to find that

they had mysteriously all vanished. The cups later appeared dotted about the site in odd and hard to reach places, sometimes perched high on top of tall posts or the roofs of surrounding buildings. The strange event had coincided with the arrival of a new member of staff in the mess, Kirsty. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support All donations no matter how large

or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to take care of yourself.

To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video any time between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained Podcast Today to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast