Candidimage Photography: Aradale Ararat Lunatic Asylum

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Aradale Ararat Lunatic Asylum

Aradale after dark

On a recent trip to Ararat we decided to do one of the after dark Ghost Tours at the old Aradale Lunatic Asylum, our tour was to start at 10.30 pm but unforeseen fainting of persons on the tour prior to ours led to a delay and our tour departed at around 11.10.

The tour was very informative and our guide Matron Hill very knowledgeable covering some of the most controversial psychiatric treatments of the 1860's, such as Lobotomy operation and also ECT /electro convulsive therapy. One can hardly start to imagine some of the other things that went on in places like Aradale in the early 1800 and 1900 hundreds, when people could be admitted to these places with depression, epileptics, downs syndrome, being labeled as idiots, imbeciles, insane. It would appear that it was very easy to find yourself admitted to these places but for as many as 13000 patients death was the only way they left Aradale. We will return at some point in daylight hours to takes some photos of this remarkable old building and the grounds. This old building represents a very sad part out the states psychiatric history.