West Vic is rife with history, heritage, and hauntings.
The chaos of the gold rush, the scars of colonisation, and stories of settlers grappling with unfamiliar terrain has generated many ghost stories around the region.
These tales grapple with everything from protection against evil forces to pub murders. It’s something the Brolga has started exploring, and we’ve compiled a list of the spookiest spots we’ve found so far.
Do you have suggestions for this list, or somewhere you think we should visit? Yell out at [email protected]
Beneath Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute
The Ballarat Mechanics Institute (BMI) is one of the most well-furnished catalogues of Ballarat history. It’s had visitors like Mark Twain, holds newspaper archives extending before the discovery of gold and an incredibly rare book collection.
Beneath the building itself, etchings from the 1800s show an insight into the paranoia and fear of the time. “Witch marks”, also known as hexafoils, are spread around the basement walls as a means of protection, one thought to read “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, under the Southern Cross, we trap the spirits down here”.
Katrina Hill, a tour guide at BMI said rituals like this were common at the time, as a way for settlers to feel safe in a tumultuous, unpredictable time.
The Old Eastern Hotel in Ballarat East
The Eastern Hotel is very well-known as a haunting hotspot, featuring on a few national lists and one of the first spots locals suggest.
Built in the 1860s, and it’s had many lives as a hotel, a brothel, a dive bar, and most recently a pub and live music venue called The Painted Lady. The current owner, Mandy Polan, delayed looking at the building for 6 months because of the ghostly rumours.
The most common sightings include the ghost of the original owner, Thomas Redshaw Hunt, often trailed by the smell of tobacco. There’s also tales of the ghosts of a mother and daughter with yellow fever, a young boy that drowned in a nearby creek, and an Irish cook that was stabbed to death.
The Convent in Daylesford
The Convent is a popular gallery, cafe and wedding venue. It’s also said to be the site of many hauntings, including nuns and priests from the days the building was still operational as a nunnery and boarding school.
There are monthly ghost tours in the building, some allegedly resulting in photographs of apparitions in the halls. Guests have reported changing temperatures, orbs of light appearing, and the ghosts of nuns loitering around soon-to-be brides.
The Old Union Bank Building in Ballarat Central
There’s a tale that a “woman in white” can be seen gazing out of one of the upper-storey windows of the old Union Bank Building on Bath Lane.
It’s said the woman, a servant girl in the 1800s, had an affair with the bank manager’s son and fell pregnant. When she learned he never planned to marry her, she leapt to her death from the building and her sorrowful ghost remains today.
Dr. David Waldron told the Brolga there’s many versions of this story across the state, country, and world. He said ghost stories are often a reflection of a region’s trauma, and they come from real scars in a town’s history.
Aradale Asylum in Ararat
Aradale Asylum was operational as a mental hospital until 1993. It was open for 126 years. Like many historic asylums, it was the site for many now-outlawed, controversial treatments that involved electroshock and restraints. As a result, it’s a hospital for “dark tourism” and many locals claim to have experienced the feeling of being watched, followed, and touched while in the building.
This year, it’s been a hot topic of conversation as its landlords announced a sudden closure due to safety concerns regarding the state of the buildings. Campaigning from local MPs, the company that hosts the ghost tours and community support has resulted in the building being set for restoration works and a partial reopening.
Stay tuned for a visit to the asylum from The Brolga in the coming months.
Header Image: The West Vic Brolga underneath Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute & Aradale Asylum, courtesy of Eerie Tours.