Australia's Most Haunted Asylum: Aradale Mental Asylum in Ararat
Could Aradale Mental Asylum in Ararat be Australia's most haunted asylum? With a rich and tragic history, it doesn't take much to imagine the possibility that this former mental asylum could be haunted.
Aradale Mental Asylum in Ararat
As you drive along the long winding derelict road, you feel as though you are driving into a dark abyss. Just as you think you are lost, you turn a corner and your eyes fall onto this brilliantly lit white mansion surrounded by the pitch-black night. It sets the mood for the night.
Australia's Most Haunted Asylum
Our tour guide made a dramatic entrance from the mansion's front doors and greeted us before inviting us inside. As we waited for the rest of our group to arrive, we gazed at the small museum of interesting and grotesque asylum items.
Our tour guide at Aradale Mental Asylum in Ararat
Daniel handed several of us flashlights and warned us that there would be no electricity beyond the museum. The group did not seem too concerned until we moved into the first room and learned of the tragedy that unfolded within that room.
Various items in the Mental Asylum Museum
Historic photos of Aradale's Mental Asylum
Room after room, building after building, Daniel took us to the most interesting spots while revealing a disturbing and haunting past. The stories make you feel heavy with the former residents' burdens and grateful that we were not them.
We all searched the dark for any signs of otherworldly spirits, half hoping to witness something and half hoping we didn't. A mixture of fear and excitement filled the group as we entered the staff residence, the most haunted building on the ground, then moved to another building that housed the operation room, where they performed lobotomies, and then we moved into the morgue.
After the morgue, the tour started to wind down. We had one more building left. With no notable paranormal activities to compare with other groups, the excitement started to wain, but Daniel's stories kept us interested.
Moving into the next-to-last ward on our tour, Daniel directed our attention to a particular room. Several of us stood a short distance back and chatted quietly with our friends as we listened to the history of that room. That is when I felt two fingers lightly brush across my upper back, scooping my hair and flicking it from right to left.
No one was behind me.
I spoke with Daniel after the tour and told him about my experience. He told me a story that gave me chills. There was a patient who loved long hair. A new nurse was on the ward and no one warned her to tuck her long locks away.
This male patient quickly grabbed two fistfuls of her hair and refused to let go. The male staff tried desperately to free the nurse to no avail. In the end, they had to cut her hair. This happened in the next-to-last ward that we visited.
Could the Aradale Mental Asylum be haunted? I think it's safe to say that it very well could be.
Ararat Forensic Psychiatry Centre Sign
