The words were scrawled with marker pens, spelt out in scrabble tiles and – strangest of all – formed extremely neatly on the floor using scores of pebbles, each of which had been carefully placed so that only a flat surface faced outwards. The most unsettling aspect of the first series of words: “FIRE”, “SKIN”, “CAR”, “HELP” and “TROY” was that they clearly referred to their good mate Trouy Raddatz, who had been incinerated in a terrible road accident on the Stuart Highway, just a couple of kilometres from their property in January, shortly before the first stone fall. On March 20, a large cross and a trident – both constructed of hundreds of pebbles – also appeared on the floor.1
It appears as though the house at the center of the Humpty Doo haunting may have recently burnt down.
UPDATE: Scroll to the bottom of this article for a recent update on the status of the blue house.
In 1998, a Channel 7 news crew, multiple priests, investigators and the residents of a blue house in Humpty Doo were witness to some of the most intense poltergeist activity in modern Australian history.
Pebbles and glass fell through ceilings, bullets appeared seemingly from nowhere, batteries, knives and spanners were thrown across rooms, scratching could be heard inside the walls, doors would swing open, and priests had bibles wrestled from their hands as well as kitchen knives being hurtled towards them. All of this activity and more, took place over a 4-month period in Australia’s Northern Territory, just outside of Darwin.
The first thing Father Stephen de Souza of Darwin’s St Mary’s Cathedral did when he arrived was to look through the entire house. In the kitchen he “… noticed a microwave with a steak knife on top. As I walked away, one of [the residents] called ‘Father!’”
Turning, he saw the knife flying straight at him. There was nobody in a position to have thrown it. There was no time to jump out of the way but when it was about half a metre from his chest it stopped, “just as though it had hit something” and fell at his feet.
Next to try popping the polt was Humpty Doo’s parish priest, Father Tom English. During the first of four visits he saw several objects flying in ways that seemed to defy explanation. The polt, he said, “doesn’t follow the laws of physics”. A pistol cartridge fell from nowhere to land at his feet, and other things “… crashed against walls … they’d just fly out of a room that nobody [was] in, for instance. Outside, things came crashing down near us” Although inexperienced in such matters he gamely blessed the place and doused it with holy water. 2
I have been into/researching the paranormal for as long as I can remember and despite being alive at the time this haunting took place; I had not heard of it until recently. I feel a little ripped-off by that to be honest. Because this may be one of the most intriguing cases I have come across in recent years, and it happened in remote Australia, a land already rich with history.
Two well-known Paranormal researchers in Australia, Paul Cropper and Tony Healy spent 4 days in the house to document the events and have themselves spoken about the experience in various places around the internet. The following text is taken from Paul Croppers website, from a post commemorating the 20th anniversary of the haunting.
The most common question I get asked is – was it real?
Yes, it certainly was.
I remain convinced that what I observed over 4 days in April 1998 was a poltergeist. Twenty years later, I’m no closer to understanding what a poltergeist is, even after investigating cases in Australia, Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Guy Playfair once mentioned to me that after decades of investigating cases, he was still was none the wiser as to what they might be. Poltergeists are probably the most accessible and yet the most puzzling of all paranormal phenomena. 3
Their firsthand account of events is astounding. Paul Cropper, who goes by ‘Cropster’ on his website, further shared the following
A few of my experiences at the house still puzzle me 20 years later. The first occurred as I was sitting at a table facing two of the female residents as they washed up at the kitchen sink only a few feet away. They were still talking when I heard two sounds; the first a handful of gravel stones (from their driveway) hitting the corrugated tin roof of the house and then the kitchen floor where they scattered. Two loud, distinct and separate sounds. Neither of the women had thrown anything and the stones had fallen between me and where the girls were standing. It appeared that the stones had come through the both the roof and the plaster ceiling. 4
The original Channel 7 news segment has also recently been uploaded to YouTube by (I assume, based on the username and various email addresses you can find for him) Paul.
After reading everything I could about the Humpty Doo case, watching various YouTube videos, browsing Reddit and ageing internet forums, I decided to see if I could track down the house on google earth, to get an idea of what the house looks like today.
Luckily for me, Paul shared the exact location of the house in another post in his website regarding the events.
Number 90, McMinns Drive sat behind a high cyclone fence, down a long gravel driveway. It was surrounded by five flat acres, studded with mango trees and wrecked vehicles.
We parked beside the single storey house painted a curious eggshell blue, and walked to the back where an extension of the baking roof formed an outdoor ‘breezeway’. Under this stood a long galvanised steel table, chairs, a fridge and a Harley Davidson. 5
From here, I opened up Google Earth, and searched the aforementioned address.
The latest images appear to come from April of 2023, and show what appears to be a collapsed roof and extensive damage to the structure of the house.
Utilising the history feature in the desktop version of Google Earth, I scrolled back through previous satellite images of the residence and found that the damage appears to have occurred somewhere between March and May of 2022.
I tried searching for fire related incidents in Humpty Doo, and found an article referencing a Fire at a single-story dwelling, in March of 2022 where a body was located.
And while this seemed ominous initially, further searching showed that the fire and death occurred at a separate property located in nearby Cattledog Court.
I was unable to find any more information related to what appears to be fire based damage at 90 McMinns Drive. I am not sure what the odds are of two homes being destroyed by fire during a 2-month period in a town of 4 thousand people, but from further reading, the Cattledog Court fire was being treated as suspicious.
The events that took place at the little blue house in Humpty Doo have never been properly explained. While some point to a hoax, there exist multiple firsthand witnesses that claim otherwise. And while the more recent damage to the house can most likely be explained through very un-paranormal happenings, I do find it slightly creepy considering that ‘FIRE’ was one of the pieces of graffiti that started it all.
If you would like to learn more about the Poltergeist of Humpty Doo, then I recommend the book: Australian poltergeist : the stone-throwing spook of Humpty Doo and many other cases. And for those who prefer video over written text, The Tape Library does a brilliant job of exploring this strange and intriguing case.
UPDATE:
The house is fine and has not burnt down. After publishing this article, I reached out to Paul who confirmed the location of the house and also confirmed that it was another property on the same block of land that appears to have caught fire at some point.
Hi
Yes it’s me – nice sleuthing! And you were right about the video too – I’m busted!
But you are wrong about the house. I must admit I was fooled for a while too until I realised that it appears there are several structures at that address (see the Maps view) and the real house had a long driveway (see the YouTube video clip) plus a garage right next to the house (see the PDF). So it’s still there, still up and I assume still empty.
As everyone has long gone, its also probably no longer polt-infested.
Cheers Paul
The PDF that Paul graciously included in the reply email shows that the blue house sits on the same block of land as the fire damaged home, but is situated approximately 50 meters northeast of the damaged home.
I’d like to thank Paul for getting back to me and clarifying my earlier error!
- Australian poltergeist : the stone-throwing spook of Humpty Doo and many other cases ↩︎
- Australian poltergeist : the stone-throwing spook of Humpty Doo and many other cases ↩︎
- The Humpty Doo Poltergeist: 20 Years On – The Fortean ↩︎
- The Humpty Doo Poltergeist: 20 Years On – The Fortean ↩︎
- Ghost Writer: The Humpty Doo Poltergeist – The Fortean ↩︎