Looming on top of a hill in Victoria, Australia, the former Aradale Lunatic Asylum cast long shadows for over a century. Something between a prison and a hospital, many of the patients, or inmates as they were called, never left.
Aradale Lunatic Asylum used to be a place where the boundaries between sanity and madness were blurred. Built in the late 1800s in Ararat, a rural city in south-west Victoria, Australia, the asylum was once the largest mental institution in the southern hemisphere, housing thousands of patients over the years, although it was designed for few hundreds.
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Perhaps to no one’s surprise, the Aradale Lunatic Asylum is now believed to be haunted and behind the walls of this imposing structure, there were stories of neglect, abuse, and tragedy that have left an indelible mark on Australia’s haunted past.
Brief History of Aradale Lunatic Asylum
Aradale Lunatic Asylum was established in 1865 as a place to house the “insane” of Victoria. People had flocked to the area in the 1800s in the Gold Rush that ran out in the 1880s. The asylum was built on a sprawling 67-acre estate in Ararat, about 200 kilometers from Melbourne. The asylum was designed to be self-sufficient, with its own farm, bakery, laundry, and even a chapel over 70 different buildings. At its peak, Aradale had a population of over 1,000 patients, many of them criminally insane.
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The Aradale Lunatic Asylum was initially created to provide care for the mentally ill, but it soon became overcrowded, and patients were subjected to inhumane treatment. As Australia was founded as a prison colony, there were a lot of inmates, and some more insane than others. Usually, the mentally ill served time in common prisons, but this place needed someplace safe to put the criminally insane as well as the lawfully ‘lunatics’.
The asylum was notorious for its use of electroconvulsive therapy and other forms of brutal “treatments” that left patients traumatized and scarred. The asylum was also known for its high death rate, with many patients dying from neglect, malnutrition, and disease.
Despite its dark history, Aradale Lunatic Asylum remained operational until 1993, when it was finally closed down due to changes in mental health care practices. In 2001, it became a campus of the Melbourne Polytechnic.
Today, the abandoned asylum stands as a grim reminder of a bygone era, and its decaying buildings and haunting atmosphere attract visitors from around the world.
Dark events and mistreatment of patients
Aradale Lunatic Asylum has a dark history of mistreatment and neglect of patients. The asylum was overcrowded, and patients were often subjected to brutal “treatments” that left them traumatized and scarred. Electroconvulsive therapy, insulin shock therapy, and lobotomies were all used as treatments for mental illness, despite their harmful effects on patients.
In addition to the brutal treatments, patients at Aradale Lunatic Asylum were subjected to neglect and abuse. Many patients were left to languish in their own filth, and some were even chained to their beds for days at a time. The asylum’s staff was known for their cruelty, and patients were often subjected to physical and emotional abuse.
In 1991, Health Department Victoria received an anonymous tip off regarding how badly things were at Aradale. Allegations include sexual and physical abuse, unprofessional medical procedures, unprofessional nursing practice, fraud, and theft of both inmate and Government funds and property.
They found that the average length of stay at Aradale for psychiatric patients is 23.3 years, or 54 times the acceptable WHO International Standard of 150 days.
Haunted Stories and Paranormal Activities from the Asylum
Aradale Lunatic Asylum is known for its haunted stories and paranormal activities. From its opening to closure, some say that over 13 000 people died in the asylum. Official sources claim there were about 3000. Over the years, visitors and paranormal investigators have reported strange occurrences, including unexplained noises, apparitions, and feelings of being watched. Many people believe that the asylum is haunted by the ghosts of former patients and staff.
The Ghost of Governor Fiddimont
One of the most famous ghost stories from Aradale Lunatic Asylum is a governor said to be haunting some stairs close to the Old Underground Kitchen. George Fiddimont was the last Governor of the gaol (prison) that the asylum was built around. In 1886, George was showing two ladies around the asylum after accepting a prisoner and was walking down some stairs. While walking, he fell and died of a heart attack at the foot of the stairs.
He was only Governor for a year, but after his sudden death, it is said that he is behind the heavy footsteps of hobnailed boots you can hear on those stairs. But when they go to check who is coming down the stairs, there is no one there.
The Curious Case of Gary Webb
As mentioned, a lot of the patients were actually inmates and considered criminally insane, but needed to serve their time in something else than a normal prison. His real name was Garry Ian Patrick David, born in 1954 in Melbourne and had a troubled childhood. His journey with Aradale Lunatic Asylum all started when he tried to rob a pizza shop in 1982 in Rye, Victoria. As he was fleeing, he shot a police officer and the owner of the shop. The police officer lived, the woman owning the pizza shop ended in a wheelchair. Gary was caught and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
He could have gotten out much earlier, but he started to write these weird letters to the media. One was titled Blueprint for Urban Warfare where he told about horrible things he would do if he ever got out like massacres, bombing buildings, poisoning water supplies and having cigarette machines dispensing fingers. People started to worry and they passed a law to keep him locked up for the rest of his life.
His behavior became more erratic and he started to harm himself, landing him in the hospital over 70 times He self mutilated, swallowing razor blades and corrosive liquids, hammering nails into his feet and even castrated himself three times, where the third time, they were unable to attach his penis.
After he died at 38 in 1993 after swallowing razor blades, it is believed he stayed in the asylum he never escaped from, haunting his former room at Aradale Lunatic Asylum. Those who have visited the room have heard someone screaming at them to get out as well as a push, trying to get them out the door.
The Haunted Superintendent Office
Those walking past the room that used to be the former Superintendent at Aradale Lunatic Asylum have come back with strange tales. It’s more of a feeling and sensation than something they see or hear.
Some believe it must be the energy of Dr. William L. Mullen who was the medical superintendent. Severely depressed, he ended his life by swallowing cyanide in 1912. He was found in his bed by his housekeeper the next morning.
Why he did this is not known to the public. He had lost his first wife a little over a year before his death. He had remarried three weeks before his death, but still chose to end his life and is thought to haunt the asylum.
Nurse Kerry in the Women’s Ward
It’s not just a single room or hallway said to be haunted by Nurse Kerry, but the entire ward. Guides and visitors claim to have seen a woman wearing an old fashioned nurse uniform and her heels are clicking in the halls as she is still going about her duty in her afterlife. She is seen vanishing into thin air as she passes through the thick stone walls and whispering softly to her patients as she did in life.
Although she is said to be a helpful ghost at Aradale Lunatic Asylum, people also claim to feel a tingling sensation in their head when entering into the shock therapy room and the surgery theaters.
Nurse Kerry is probably a name given after she started appearing as a ghost, but it is said that she used to work at the asylum in the 1800s, said to might have died of typhoid.
The Notorious J Ward for the Criminals
Another ward thought to be haunted is the notorious J Ward where they kept the criminally insane. It used to be The County Gaol before temporarily being a place where they kept the criminally insane. The temporary solution ended up lasting for a long time. People report feeling suddenly ill and full of terror as they enter the building. There are those claiming to have been bitten or pusheed as they walk through the J Ward.
The haunting from the ward could come from numerous people that were kept here. Some say that it is the ghosts of three prisoners who were hanged and buried on the property. Because they weren’t buried properly with graves only marked with three scratches on the prison wall, they are lingering.
There are listed three executions on the J Ward, of Andrew Vere in 1870 who shot and killed a person, serial killer Robert Francis Burns in 1883 and Henry Morgan in 1884 who cut throat murdered 10 year old Margaret Nolan after sexually assaulting her.
All three executed prisoners were buried within the walls of the prison in accordance with the Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864 and are now laid to rest in Old Ararat Cemetery in marked graves.
Aradale Lunatic Asylum – a cautionary tale
Aradale Lunatic Asylum is a cautionary tale of the mistreatment of the mentally ill and the dangers of unchecked power. One often think that this type of institutionalised tortur only happened back in the olden days, but the last damning report of the asylum was only a couple of decades ago.
The asylum’s dark history is a reminder of the importance of treating mental illness with care and compassion, and of the need for oversight and accountability in mental health care practices. As we explore the abandoned halls of Aradale, we are reminded of the lives that were lost and the suffering that occurred within its walls.
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References:
Aradale Mental Hospital – Wikipedia
15 Sep 1886 – SUDDEN DEATH OF THE GOVERNOR OF ARARAT GAOL. – Trove
Robert Francis Burns (1840-1883) – Find a Grave Memorial
Henry Morgan (1838-1884) – Find a Grave Memorial
21 Aug 1912 – SUICIDE OF A DOCTOR. – Trove
suicide of a doctor – Newspapers.com™
