Behind walls of old asylum where 9,000 patients died and ghosts still haunt halls

Ghosts, fires and detained arsonists that went mad, Beechworth Mental Asylum is full of grim stories. Over 9,000 patients are believed to have died at the institute

Behind the walls of an old mental asylum are rumours of ghosts haunting the run-down brickwork.

Beechworth Lunatic Asylum was open in a Victoria town in Australia from 1867 to 1995. Most of its patients, reports claim, never left the building alive and there were over 9,000 recorded deaths there.

With limited understanding of mental health problems, a lack of developed medication until the 1950s and some seriously ill patients, retaining equipment like strait jackets along with electric shock were used to keep patients in check.

As a result of the treatment of patients and the type of clientele, the home is a natural attraction for ghost hunters keen on spotting remnants of the world of the patients inside a building made up of peeling brickwork, its once white walls now grey and foreboding.

Though there is no scientific basis for ghosts existing, common ‘sightings’ include Matron Sharpe, said to be visible sitting with patients during electroshock treatment, and ‘Arthur’, a man who used to work on the gardens in the grounds.

Drama often surrounded the area, including an escape by 11 patients in 1951 as a fire swept through the building and caused some of the wards to be knocked down.

The Herald Sun reported: “400 male patients, many naked, were rescued from Beechworth asylum today, minutes before a fire caused the blazing top storey of the mental hospital to collapse… 11 patients escaped into the surrounding mountainous country. Seven were later recaptured, but four — described as not dangerous — are still at large.”

Where the Bristol ward was located is believed to be the ghost of a doctor who worked at Beechworth.

Patients held in the prison can tell grim tales of why they were sent there.

Jim Kelly was given 15 years hard labour after burning down the house of his sister-in-law. Part of his punishment was to help build the hospital at Beechworth, but it is said that here, Jim suffered a breakdown and spent the rest of his life inside the asylum, where he died in 1903.

Like the rest of the institution’s patients, he was given an unmarked grave.

Kelly was the uncle of bushranger Ned Kelly, the infamous outlaw convicted of a number of crimes including murder. He was eventually sentenced to death by colonial judge Sir Redman Barry, who sentenced both Jim and Ned.

The site is open to tourists and the Explore Beechworth asylum offers a range of tours, with “night time paranormal investigation tours” only available for those over the age of 16 as people explore the building to “take part in a paranormal investigation with professional equipment” and “attempt to find out who or what really does haunt the foreboding asylum”.