The official history of Victoria's rich pastoral industry is well known, but away from the log books of wool clips and sheep numbers there is a world of shadowy tales told late at night around the campfire. One such tale of the supernatural hails from the rolling redgums of the Toolondo district, nestled in the foothills of the Black Range west of the Grampians. The story goes scores of shearers, classers and rouseabouts coming to Changbool, a historic property in the hands of the Officer family since the mid-19th century, have had to share their accommodation with an uninvited guest. Current owner of the property Charlie Officer said many shearers left the farm's shearers' quarters swearing black and blue they had seen or heard something they just could not explain rationally. "The first I remember of it goes back to the 50s and 60s when we were still regularly using the quarters, these big burly blokes would turn up in the morning and be white as a sheet," Mr Officer said. "Normally you'd put it down to having overindulged a little the night before and not quite being ready for the first run, but the actual cause was a little more interesting. "Shearers from separate teams all claim they kept hearing a rocking chair creaking and the turning of newspapers out in the kitchen, but when they went out to check there was nobody there," he said. "These were blokes whose only worry with spirits in the quarters would be whether there were Bundy cans in the fridge for cut-out, but these sightings kept happening across different teams and to people who would not have heard the rumours of a ghost before." Mr Officer said the family had pieced together where the basis of the story came from. "We believe it may have been a shearer's cook, a man that met a tragic end at the hands of a disgruntled shearer around the turn of the 19 and 20th century," he said. He said the ghost had proved to particularly resourceful and had shifted around quite a bit. IN OTHER NEWS: "It's all buried in the mists of time a bit but it is believed that the actual incident happened up the road at Mt Talbot Station, which was owned by another branch of the Officer family," Mr Officer said. "From there then old Mt Talbot shearer's quarters were moved to Changbool where they were used as stables. "Now our ghostly friend, he didn't like getting relegated to staying with the animals so he upped and moved to the Changbool shearers' quarters, which is where he seems to have stayed." After the shearing teams were replaced by local contractors the shearers' quarters became more widely used by guests sampling the famous Changbool hospitality or teenagers daring each other to brave a stint in the dark in the kitchen in the presence of the cook. While Mr Officer said the ghost appears to be more leisurely these days with less appearances it was still a firm part of the property's identity. "It's an interesting old story and a real part of our history," he said.