I was at the ruins of the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Cowra last week.

It was the middle of a very hot day and we were wandering around the ruins which are spread over a huge paddock outside of Cowra.

The first weird thing was the atmosphere of the place. We were there with our three children and feeling very hot and bothered as everyone was hot, tired and hungry. But the minute we stepped into the field we felt this overwhelming sadness.

My husband and the other two kids had a quick look but left pretty quickly becuase they felt 'weird' but I was last because I was piggy backing my youngest who is quite heavy. As we were walking back up the path I could feel somebody watching me from the other side of the paddock where there were some ruins however I dismissed the feeling thinking I was just being overly sensitive. But as I continued to walk up the path to leave the paddock I heard a loud clanging coming from those same ruins (there's nothing there, just old foundations), a bit like someone hitting the side of a corrugated iron wall.

I had a look but there wasn't anything there. This happened the whole way up the path. Each time I stopped and looked, the clanging stopped too. When I got back to the car, my 11 year old daughter said that the heavy steel gate at the entrance of the paddock closed itself while she looked on.

She had left it open for me and watched it close by itself (it wasn't spring loaded). I know that this isn't a "ghost story" in the true sense of the word but would be very interested if anyone else has ever experienced anything unusual or heard of anything similar at these ruins. I have looked on the internet but couldn't find a thing. 

Submitted by Sonia March 2006