Phantom drovers and ghost cattle were once said to haunt the hills around Moe.

Newspaper clippings from years gone by tell of a ghost truck on the Western Highway at Kaniva.

But with at least five suspected spooks and only 24 permanent living residents, the once booming gold town of Walhalla could have the highest living to undead ratio in Victoria.

"I don't believe in ghosts but I would rather say there were things that can't be explained," local John Aldersea said.

Tales of Walhalla's spooks range from strange noises and apparitions to the inexplicable moving of the hands of a clock.

The ghost of a woman named Emily is said to still visit her dead fiance or husband in the old Walhalla hospital.

Rhoda Spetts has been seen at her family's cottage. Mine tour operator Ralph Richards has heard footsteps in an empty tunnel. "I am absolutely sure that nobody else was there," he said.

"When I go in on my own I shut the gate behind me."

General store owner Rhonda Aquilina, who attributes the strange behaviour of the shop's clocks to a deceased old-timer named Alf, said Walhalla's atmosphere lent itself to spooks.

"We get a feeling sometimes here that if you want to leave yourself open, it will be there," she said. "It's the mist."

While the ghosts of Walhalla are in high density, researcher and Haunted Bookshop owner Drew Sinton said country Victoria was likely to be teeming with ghostly haunts.

"I would say anywhere you could probably get about 30 places," he said. "It's just once you start researching them you get stories."

Other ghostly towns include Ballarat, where a spirit known as Gloria haunts Her Majesty's Theatre.

The ghost is believed to be of 16-year-old entertainer Caroline Eliza Lewis.

Ghastly Tours operator Geoff Butler said the history of the goldfields also lent itself to superstition.

"The people of the goldfields and the next 50 years or after were a pretty violent lot," he said. "Hotel maids being murdered was a pretty common pastime."

He said while the city may not have any more ghosts than other areas, people were becoming more willing to share their stories.

"It's just simply a case of people are more inclined to talk about it," he said.

"If you ask around I think you could do the same down in Camberwell, Carlton or Fitzroy."