Insane Asylum Australia

[Jayme Bostic]

AradaleMental Hospital was an Australian psychiatric hospital, located in Ararat, a rural city in south-west Victoria, Australia. Originally known as Ararat Lunatic Asylum, Aradale and its two sister asylums at Kew and Beechworth were commissioned to accommodate the growing number of 'lunatics' in the colony of Victoria. Construction began in 1864, and the guardhouses are listed as being built in 1866 though the list of patients extends as far back as the year before (1865). It was closed as an asylum in 1998 and in 2001 became a campus of the Melbourne Polytechnic (Previously known as NMIT) administered Melbourne Polytechnic's Ararat Training Centre.

The asylum was designed by G. W. Vivian and John James Clark (at this time Vivian's assistant), adapting Vivian's initial designs for a similar buildings in Kew and Beechworth. Building commenced at Kew (Kew Lunatic Asylum), Ararat and Beechworth (Beechworth Asylum) at roughly the same time, however Ararat was completed first. The building of Ararat was contracted to O'Grady, Glynn and O'Callaghan[2] and not patients (or "inmates" as they were called) as many erroneously believe. The asylum was built as a town within a town with its own market gardens, orchard, vineyards, piggery and other stock kept on the grounds. At its height it had over 500 staff and as it stands today the complex is made up of 63 buildings ranging in age from the original wings built in the 1860s to the modern forensic unit which was built in 1991 - only two years before the facility closed. Despite being closed as an asylum the facility continued to house female prisoners during the building/renovation of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre right up until its current management took over in 2001.[citation needed]

Another distinctive feature of Ararat and other early Victorian asylums is the use of a variation on ha-ha walls around the patients' courtyards.[4] They consisted of a trench, one side of which was vertical and faced with stone or bricks, the other side sloped and turfed. From the inside, the walls presented a tall face to patients, preventing them from escaping, while from outside the walls looked low so as not to suggest imprisonment.[5]

In 1913 the landscape gardener Hugh Linaker was employed to layout the grounds of Mont Park. As landscape gardener for the State Lunacy Department, he commenced a program of landscape improvements and tree plantings at asylums in Victoria. Linaker was already familiar with the area, having previously laid out the grounds of Alexandra Park in Ararat.[2] Only a few remnants of the Linaker's plantings remain.[4]

In December 1886, the old gaol at Ararat was proclaimed as "J Ward" of the Ararat Asylum. It was to cater for those persons who were detained in any jail, reformatory or industrial school or other place of confinement, who appeared to be insane. The ward was not a separate institution in its own right and has continued to function as a division of the Ararat Mental Hospital. "J Ward" was always regarded as a temporary measure.[6]

A new institution was to be built at Sunbury for the retention of the criminally insane. However, when the building was nearing completion it was decided that it would house females only and males would remain at "J Ward". In May 1988, the then Minister for Health announced that "J Ward" was to be closed over the next year.

The decommissioning of Aradale began in the early 1990s, with patients transferred to community living and to other facilities. After December 1993, the Ararat Forensic Psychiatry Centre was the only remaining ward. In 1997, the remaining patients at AFPC were eventually transferred to Rosanna, until the new Thomas Embling Hospital in Fairfield was completed.[7]

In 2001, the Victorian Government provided $7.4 million to Melbourne Polytechnic to establish a campus of the Melbourne Polytechnic's Ararat Training Centre on the site of the hospital. 30 hectares of vineyard and 10 hectares of olive grove were planted in 2002, and an olive processing facility and winery were later built on site. The first planting at the Ararat campus was of 28 hectares of vines, which produced the first vintage in 2005. Since commencing training and research at Aradale in 2002, Melbourne Polytechnic also established a 250 tonne winery, a four hectare lavender farm, and extensive training facilities. The Polytechnic campus was established to provide a world-class wine and hospitality training facility in Victoria.

There are regular paranormal investigations at the hospital, and it is considered one of the most haunted locations in Victoria, possibly all of Australia. The site was the subject of episode 11 of the "How Haunted?" podcast.[8]

Australia has a relatively dark history of mental illness treatment. It wasn't until the early 1900s that "lunatic asylums" even employed doctors. A 1938 Royal Commission from Western Australia found one facility suffered severe overcrowding, patients with nothing to fill their days, and staff with no interest in rehabilitating them. It was during this same year that Larundel Mental Asylum was built in Melbourne.

Australia started closing asylums in the 1980s, instead choosing to treat mental illness in smaller hospital units. Larundel was officially closed in 2001 and it has since become a derelict ruin, off limits to the general public. But rumors about the building's checkered past has earned it a reputation for being haunted. Maybe even the most haunted.

Despite the dilapidation, Larundel has somehow still held onto its beauty. It was originally one of Melbourne's three "magnificent asylums for the insane" built in the 1930s and 40s to help present the city as cultured and compassionate. The large windows and sprawling gardens seem like an ornate attempt to convince the outside world that this is not a jail.

No ghosts so far. Plenty of Gatorade bongs and old Winfield Blues packs though. I was expecting the place to smell bad but it doesn't, the only issue was the dust. I can't see any evidence of squatters.

Larundel was built around a central courtyard that's inaccessible from the outside. The overgrown bushes rustle with the movement that suggests possums or nocturnal mammals of some kind. Could they be ghost joeys? Keep an eye out for my next in-depth investigation: "Ghost Joeys, Chemtrails, and the Panama Papers."

Some genius had spray painted shadows like these all over the place. No sarcasm: He or she is a genius and we are not worthy of this level of art. When you are walking in a pitch black abandoned mental asylum and your torch catches one of these shadows, you freak the fuck out.

The dust is getting to us, so Sean and I decide to head back to our base outside the grounds and get some whiskey. We make it as far as the main balcony when we see two security cars perched 50 meters away just outside the outer fencing. They're on their phones, looking more or less our direction. We hear dogs. More cars pull up.

We drop down; the balcony wall our only shelter. Security enter the grounds and head towards the Laurendel, high-powered flashlights passing back and forth across the facade, until they are right beneath us.

We lay silently in our dark hidden crevice. I see Sean slowly reach for his camera. No. But he continues. NO NO, shit, don't. But he does. He fucking pokes his head up like a duck in hunting season and takes the snap above.

As we start to crawl back inside through the rubble, I feel like I'm in a goddamn war movie, carefully avoiding the search lights. If you've ever played Sly Racoon on PlayStation 2, this was exactly like that. You can't buy this kind of adrenaline.

I imagine myself as a patient, surrounded by guards, screaming to be let free as I'm beaten for refusing to eat, or because I pissed myself. One of my best friends is autistic. If he was born at a different time, these walls would've been his fate. I shudder to think of all the misunderstood people who have wasted away inside Laurendel's walls.

Sean and I both drift off around 3 AM. When we stir around 5:30 AM, the security guards are still patrolling outside. We've been dead quiet this whole time, they probably think we're not even here anymore. All that's left at this point is two guys and one car.

We figure their shift must end at 6 AM, but the sun will rise just after that, so we have a limited time to get the fuck out of here while still under the cover of darkness. At 5:59 AM we hear a car start. We watch them leave and now it's time to go.

Soon, not only the criminally insane were housed here, but it also became a place for individuals suffering from mental illness. Think about conditions such as post natal depression, epilepsy, autism and Down Syndrome. The Mental Hospital was in operation for nearly 130 years, and it closed its doors in 1993. At its height it housed 1,000 patients and 500 staff members.

The Aradale Mental Hospital was built as a town within a town. It had its own market gardens, orchards, vineyards and a piggery. There were also gallows, a morgue and a graveyard located on site. There was a total of 63 buildings and the courtyards were walled with so-called Ha-ha walls. These kind of walls were used in early Victorian asylums. From the outside, it seemed like a low wall, as not to suggest imprisonment. On the other side, however, a deep trench would make it impossible to escape the brick wall. You can see that pictured up here. Today, Aradale is considered a ghost town.

During the 130 years of operation, over 13,000 inmates, patients and staff members died here. That certainly leaves an emotional mark on a building. Some say Aradale is the most haunted place in Australia. Ghost tours are available and there have been many reports of visitors feeling nauseous, fainting and experiencing sudden pains. Some ghosts of the past like to make themselves known to those who live today.

George Fiddimont was the last Governor of the gaol. In 1886, George was proudly showing a group of people around. He was just coming down the stairs when he suffered a major heart attack. George Fiddimont died at the spot. Tour guides and visitors claim to hear heavy footsteps made by hobnailed boots walking up and down the stairs. But when they check it out, no one is there.

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