Haunted Graveyard
© Stephen Cooper/The Daily Telegraph Sue Hamparsum and Chilli-Rose.
Dog walkers are demanding floodlights be installed at a local cemetery because it can be "spooky" at night - and their fears were confirmed by an expert in paranormal activity.

Sue Hamparsum is one of many pet owners who walk their dogs among gravestones that date back hundreds of years at the oldest cemetery on the north shore, Saint Thomas Rest Park, in Crows Nest.

Dozens of pet owners visit the park during the daytime but most are quick to scurry home at sundown, when the area becomes a bit eerie.

"There are rumours the park is haunted," Ms Hamparsum said.

"(Over the years) some of the headstones have been removed but the people are still buried there."

In response to these tales, The Daily Telegraph invited Janine Donnellan, from Soul Searches Paranormal Investigations, to test if the park was haunted. Ms Donnellan has been investigating spirits for more than 15 years and has a certificate of Advanced Achievement in Parapsychology from the Australian Academy of Applied Parapsychology.

Her electromagnetic energy measuring equipment lit up when she arrived in the park and led her to a particular area among a cluster of gravestones: "What I did perceive is that there is an active spirit.

"It's a male in his 30s or 40s. I saw him at one stage crouching behind one of the graves and then over to another. He noticed me and I was trying to get him engaged in conversation but he was very reticent to do that."

Despite the close encounter Ms Donnellan said there was no reason for locals to be afraid: "There wasn't a sense of him being vicious.

"He's not harming anyone. He was just very inquisitive."

Some of the other ghost stories from the area involve two young girls appearing in photographs.

"Three different families have taken photographs of their children at the playground and two little girls appeared in the photographs, but they don't remember them being there," Ms Hamparsum said.

North Sydney Council general manager Penny Holloway said council was yet to establish the best way to help pet owners visit the park at night.

"We don't think flood lighting is right. There would be a lot of impact on other properties," she said.