Hello!
I know there has been a write up on the lunatic asylum here already but since this forum is about peoples experiences on them I will share mine as I went there Saturday the 10th Jan (so it's still very fresh in my mind)
I will start with where I stayed.
The Old Priory in Beechworth seemed like my cup of tea as I adore any place with history! This place is big, If I remember I'm pretty sure completion of this building was 1886-87. The bottom floor is pretty much kept to what it was room wise and it has all it's original lead glass which is a fantastic feat given it was a school. The Priory closed as a school in 1978. The ceilings are high with beautiful designs which you could be forgiven for thinking pressed metal, they are all original plaster which is amazing because of the work that would of gone into them.
I stayed in the miners cottages at the back of the priory as I would be getting back late from the ghost tour and did not want to wake others staying in the priory. The owner has re-built the cottages from the bricks of the original cottages as they were in bad disrepair.
This place will cater schools, advents like weddings down to just a normal stay.
And if you are a nice person the owner Graham will go out of his way and he did the morning we met him and were leaving. He took us for a tour around the building explaining the history and what his wife and he have done to it since and a few giggles over things and people that have gone on there (including a right cranky old nun that had lived there. He had a run in with her when she decided to visit after it got turned into a B&B! she had lived in one of the rooms for 15 years). They don't kick you out at the crack of dawn and your more than welcome to look around everything and take photos.
Now I hear this priory is haunted from the asylum tour guides. Open to debate. If it was the owner did not seem the need to bring it up and was very comfortable in the place as was I. Though I don't think I could handle walking through it at night with a torch lol but I think that was more to do with the whole "Big dark building" thing. I did have one experience which was when I came back from the pub about 10pm with hubby and we decided to walk through the priory at night for curiosity. I stopped to grab a info sheet at the front desk and a cold feeling pressed against the back of my head. I looked around to see if it was a breeze but the air was still and my hair did not get moved, not a strand. This cold feeling lasted for a rough 15 mins which tells me someone said "hello"!
web site here:
http://www.oldpriory.com.au/index.htmlThen after a few cuppers we headed out to La Trobe at 11.40pm for our asylum tour. After chatting to the security guard about some photos he got (one was interesting but he smokes so I have to keep in mind that maybe it could of been that but then again I smoke and have a fair idea of what it looks like caught on film).
After having a chat we were off with a couple giggle pots which I'm sure was a riot for the guide as he scared them crapless 3 times through the night
I don't know the mans name but it was not the organizer of the tours who also guides.
Now I am a cranky bugger when it comes to getting photos and one of my dear friends will vouch for me being a sticker of no ciggys while looking around and NO light sources on when taking a photo. I took note of the weather and a storm had passed about a half hour before so there was mild moisture in the air and cool but not enough to make a vapor cloud from breath.
I walked at the back with my hubby because it seemed senseless trying to get a photo with 5 lanterns on in the room and every body's camera flash going off + the LCD screens lit. So every time we moved out of a room I stayed back and took photos of the empty rooms which played out to another problem...when you have a horde of 20 people backing out it puts dust up in the air so everything got stuffed by dust artifacts caught (or orbs as most like to call them, but these WERE just dust believe me).
I only caught one photo that had me thinking and I did send it to the tour organizer, the others nothing.
Now if you only go on this for a photo op of a ghost you will be upset as it may be a rare hit or a bigger miss, but if you go with a big love of history it is awesome! the guides give you a lot of information and it is narrated brilliantly! I will go back again because I just enjoyed every moment (bar when he would close us in small rooms together, I'm not good being back to back with people in a small room).
I got eerie feelings but this is so easy being in a place so huge, old and dark so I don't know if it was that or other though I don't think I have ever looked back over my shoulder so much in my life
The room which is hard to dismiss a horrid feeling is where they gave electric shock treatments. Now the guide claimed a lot of people end up sick viewing this room and told us a few things that happened before and a couple people he had already sick on the other tours of that night. I can't help but think if they didn't tell you this a lot of the sickness wouldn't happen. Power of suggestion is..well...a powerful thing! 2 women ended up sick in our group and left the area (a lady in a earlier group even left with a bleeding nose). I pretty much made an effort to forget what he said before I went in. My temples felt like they were going to explode in there but I will never know if it was because of what he said, or because I was busy hoping I wouldn't get sick because I didn't want to leave that area and miss part of the tour...or maybe...just maybe at a little chance I was soaking up the horrid events of past. Me being a realist to a point, believe just suggestion for myself personally. But you can not deny the vibes that washes off the walls there. Now it was explained what happened to these people when they got their shock treatments, either your body splayed out backwards with force or you contracted inward into a fetal position. Either pose you tore ligaments, muscles, broke bones and shattered teeth. Torture indeed yes?
The courtyard behind the main entrance can give you the utter creeps because you are surrounded by high walls sprayed with dark windows and you will feel like your being watched and I am sure everyone who goes there is by what ever is left in that place.
If you get the chance, do go on this tour, it is worth it.
Site here:
http://www.beechworthghosttours.com/Over all I loved both of the places and will go back again first chance I get