We decided to have a break last weekend and sit back, relax and be taken on a guided ghost tour to the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, Beechworth. Mayday Hills was an Australian psychiatric hospital and its two sister asylums at Kew and Ararat were commissioned to accommodate the growing number of 'lunatics' in the colony of Victoria.
Mayday Hills now resembles a village, overlooking Beechworth- the best preserved historical gold town in Victoria.
The grounds are known as LaTrobe at Beechworth and consist of university buildings, self contained and hotel accommodation, a day spa, conference buildings, empty buildings and of course the original pschiatric wards.
The great thing about Latrobe is you can stay onsite. To our surprise, Adam of Beechworth Tours informed us that our hotel room was actually a converted ward.
Adam and Sharon, of Beechworth Ghost Tours, booked us on their midnight ghost tour of the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum. Our guide, Jodie, was fantastically eccentric and took us on a guided tour of the old female and male wards pointing out the old operating theatre, autopsy room, isolation cells, ha ha walls and quick escape passages for the staff. La Trobe definitely has an atmosphere about it. In one of the male wards we heard an unexplained tapping sound behind a door which moved to the ceiling, then across the ceiling. Apparently it happens often.
The ghosts of former patients still linger, and it's no wonder why when many of them checked in and never left. One of the male wards also made a few of us feel naseous, Adam and Jodie explained that on the tours people sometimes have unexplained nose bleeds.
The Beechworth Lunatic Asylum was built during the height of Beechworth's gold rush period in 1867 and operated until it's closure in 1995.
Quite few relics can be seen at the Museum of Victoria, including straight jackets from 1900, pill trolleys and medical implements.
We had a fantastically creepy weekend thanks to Beechworth Ghost Tours and can't wait to visit again.
Happy Haunting
Lantern Ghost Tours
*Copyright Lantern Ghost Tours 2010
*Thank you Beechworth Ghost Tours for the tour and hospitality
Visit http://www.beechworthghosttours.com/ for the Beechworth Ghost Tour
Visit www.lanternghosttours.com for haunted weekends away to Beechworth
Visit www.lanternghosttours.com to visit Mayday Hills sister asylum in Ararat,as part of the haunted Talbot weekend away
No comments:
Post a Comment