Mayday Hills
Lunatic Asylum

BEECHWORTH, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

“Quite a few people had encounters they couldn’t explain including hair pulling and scratching … ”

BY HALLOZWEEN EDITOR ANDREA BEATTIE


While this gorgeous building looks like it just stepped out of a 19th Century romance novel, it has a much darker history. Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, also known as Beechworth Hospital for the Insane and Mayday Hills Mental Hospital, is a decommissioned hospital which closed in 1995 after 128 years.

At its peak of operation, Mayday Hills consisted of 67 buildings and was home to more than 1200 patients and 500 staff, so it’s little wonder some of those troubled souls still call the asylum home.

The Hallozween Paranormal team visited the asylum in June, 2020, and did a 90-minute night ghost tour with the fabulous Carina, before jumping into the spirit world with a fabulous three-hour paranormal investigation hosted by Josh.

During the investigation our small group visited about eight locations, including some you don’t visit on the historical or ghost tour, and we were given plenty of time to explore independently at each spot. Each group is given a Ghost Meter, but you’re welcome to bring your own equipment, and the guides also have plenty of other paranormal gadgets for the group to use such as voice recorders, spirit box, ovilus and laser grid.

We were lucky enough to be one of the first groups to explore and investigate a newly opened part of the men’s infirmary section within the Grevillea complex, which was very active and quite a few people had encounters they couldn’t explain including hair pulling and scratching.

We also photographed a dark shadow over the bath in Grevillea when no one else was in the room, and when we tried to recreate the shadow, we couldn’t. Josh was excellent at giving you a rundown of the history of each area, but was careful not to pre-empt any experiences or encounters.

We definitely recommend rugging up if you’re going in winter, and make sure you watch Aussie horror film Scare Campaign, which was filmed at the asylum, before visiting. This is a location we could visit again and again and again and be spooked every time!

You can book a tour of Mayday Hills by going to the Asylum Ghost Tours website, here.