‘Haunted’ floors and presences: Eerie tales from a century-old supermarket
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Tasmania is known for its rich history, and the seaside town of Swansea on the state's east coast is no exception.
Swansea, one of the first official settlements established in Australia after Sydney and the state capital of Hobart, is home to many heritage buildings full of stories from the past.
One such building is the location of the local IGA supermarket, which sits right on the main street. This building has a long history—including at least one resident ghost!
The supermarket has been run as a general store since 1860. For over 170 years, the Morris family owned and operated this general store, which eventually became the IGA supermarket in 2022.
Despite the addition of a modern supermarket, the original building is still in use. Greg Raspin stated that he hasn’t had any scary encounters during his yearlong tenure as the store manager.
However, some of his staff insisted a ghost lives upstairs in the original building and often hears footsteps from the third floor.
One former employee who worked there for 25 years claimed she always felt an eerie 'presence' and would politely greet it at the start of each shift in an effort to be left alone.
She also refused to use the upstairs bathroom after 5:30 p.m. due to the ‘haunted’ floor.
Mr Raspin shared: ‘The girls say stuff goes missing and items fly off the shelves.’
‘They hear footsteps coming from the third storey. Some of them refuse to go upstairs anymore,’ he added.
Builders doing renovations have also encountered similar creepy occurrences, with footsteps and other bizarre activity stopping suddenly when they cease work each day.
Greg remains a sceptic, but he can't deny the heritage building certainly looks the part, with abandoned items scattered across dusty floors and centuries-old signatures scrawled on the walls.
The structure, built in 1838, is considered a ‘significant landmark’ in the town and has ‘value to Tasmania as a relatively rare rural example of a freestanding commercial warehouse’. It is still in use today for community purposes and is part of a local ghost tour.
Recently, the local council approved major redevelopment plans for the site.
The neighbouring supermarket will be replaced with a new hospitality complex while the original building undergoes conservation and stabilisation work. A second IGA nearby will remain.
It's worth noting that this particular supermarket is not the only IGA store in Australia with haunted connections.
In 2012, a local outlet in Brompton, South Australia gained worldwide attention when a box of Fruit Roll-Ups flew off a shelf and landed six meters away, as captured by in-store CCTV.
'The previous owners told me it was haunted,' owner Norm Hurst said at the time .'I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” But since we've owned the place, strange things have happened.’
Would you be brave enough to visit this place after dark? Have you had your own ghostly encounter around Tasmania or elsewhere in Australia? Share your creepy tales with fellow members below!
Swansea, one of the first official settlements established in Australia after Sydney and the state capital of Hobart, is home to many heritage buildings full of stories from the past.
One such building is the location of the local IGA supermarket, which sits right on the main street. This building has a long history—including at least one resident ghost!
The supermarket has been run as a general store since 1860. For over 170 years, the Morris family owned and operated this general store, which eventually became the IGA supermarket in 2022.
Before becoming an IGA store in 2022, this building in Swansea, Tasmania, was owned by the Morris family for 170 years. Credit: Discover Tasmania
Despite the addition of a modern supermarket, the original building is still in use. Greg Raspin stated that he hasn’t had any scary encounters during his yearlong tenure as the store manager.
However, some of his staff insisted a ghost lives upstairs in the original building and often hears footsteps from the third floor.
One former employee who worked there for 25 years claimed she always felt an eerie 'presence' and would politely greet it at the start of each shift in an effort to be left alone.
She also refused to use the upstairs bathroom after 5:30 p.m. due to the ‘haunted’ floor.
Mr Raspin shared: ‘The girls say stuff goes missing and items fly off the shelves.’
‘They hear footsteps coming from the third storey. Some of them refuse to go upstairs anymore,’ he added.
Builders doing renovations have also encountered similar creepy occurrences, with footsteps and other bizarre activity stopping suddenly when they cease work each day.
Greg remains a sceptic, but he can't deny the heritage building certainly looks the part, with abandoned items scattered across dusty floors and centuries-old signatures scrawled on the walls.
Greg Raspin, the current store manager, admitted that the building looks haunted. Credit: Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society
The structure, built in 1838, is considered a ‘significant landmark’ in the town and has ‘value to Tasmania as a relatively rare rural example of a freestanding commercial warehouse’. It is still in use today for community purposes and is part of a local ghost tour.
Recently, the local council approved major redevelopment plans for the site.
The neighbouring supermarket will be replaced with a new hospitality complex while the original building undergoes conservation and stabilisation work. A second IGA nearby will remain.
It's worth noting that this particular supermarket is not the only IGA store in Australia with haunted connections.
In 2012, a local outlet in Brompton, South Australia gained worldwide attention when a box of Fruit Roll-Ups flew off a shelf and landed six meters away, as captured by in-store CCTV.
'The previous owners told me it was haunted,' owner Norm Hurst said at the time .'I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” But since we've owned the place, strange things have happened.’
Would you be brave enough to visit this place after dark? Have you had your own ghostly encounter around Tasmania or elsewhere in Australia? Share your creepy tales with fellow members below!
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idea the ghost 
is possibly a lost soul that hasn't moved on 
