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The old church spires poked up above the trees, its shelled out sandstone windows lit up by glowing lanterns.
Above the full moon glowed, offering us more light than I would have hoped, but a tad more eeriness.
Port Arthur, a historic former convict settlement in Tasmania, looked like a scene out of a horror movie. The perfect place for a Ghost Tour.
credit: Jenne
We were about to embark on a journey to explore the hidden side of the convict settlement, led by an expert guide who will reveal the most harrowing stories of Port Arthur’s history.
If you’ve ever fancied exploring the dark recesses of our heritage buildings, here is our experience of the 90-minute Port Arthur Ghost Tour…
Our Tour Experience Of A Port Arthur Ghost Tour
Our small group set off on a lantern-lit ghost tour, walking across the paddock to the first crumbling ruins for our first ghostly tale in the most haunted place in Australia.
In case you are unaware of Port Arthur, this was the place where the criminals were placed during the colonisation of European settlement. Although many think of it as a prison, it was more of a settlement, as prisoners were able to build a small community there, but many tragic and horrific things happened, and it was no place you would want to be today.
Like my children when they are told they can have chocolate, I almost jumped up and down and giggled as I was so excited.
Tell me more. I want more stories, I want a ghostly encounter.
I regretted not putting my hand up when visitors were asked to be a lantern bearer, when the lead lantern bearer was sent to open cottage doors, warn the ghosts that we were coming and meant no harm, and be the first to enter the pitch dark, haunted buildings.
Credit: Blake Chen
The first stop was the parsonage house, which is known to be in the top 5 haunted houses in Australia. It’s not a convict prison as you might expect, but a cute pumpkin cottage that belonged to the Reverend George Eastman.
His death wasn’t so traumatic that he’d have cause to haunt, but it was for his wife and 10 children who were no longer looked after by church or government and so lived a life of struggle.
Is it the wife and children that haunt the property or the reverend himself?
No one knows for sure, but the figure of a man has been seen outside the window with arm raised in stabbing strike motion, and a builder involved in the restoration awoke one evening to a heavy weight on his chest and the sensation of hands gripping his throat to strangle him.
credit: Jenne
His two colleagues heard a commotion and walked in to see their friend in a convulsive state holding his neck and rocking back and forth. They used all their strength to try and drag him out of the house but could not move him…until the ghost let up.
This is just a fraction of the complex history that Port Arthur alludes.
Our guide, Marc, has a gift for rich storytelling, and who had us so engrossed in the tales that we felt a part of them.
He stood behind doors after he opened causing each person to jump as they walked through the door jambs after spying a dark figure in a trench coat leaning against the wall. Every time we came to the next door we thought we expected it, but it still made us jump!
He enhanced the details of his story with loud bangs on walls and piercing screams of victims. We’d all jump and scream in return followed by fits of giggles.
Each of us huddling just that little bit closer to our partners as we moved forward to the next haunted place to hear more ghostly tales and uncover the mystery of the place.
credit: boonie
We ended our tour in the separate prison. This was the place where a new form of punishment was put on the convicts – an attempt to control the mind through isolation, solitary confinement and the removal of sensory awareness through sound-proof, light-proof cells.
I felt the anguish and pain of the vivid stories seeping out from the walls. What the living can do is far scarier than what ghosts can.
Things to Know About A Port Arthur Ghost Tour
The Port Arthur ghost tour operates daily from 6.00pm and 8.00pm (April – September) and 7.00pm, 8.30pm and 9.00pm (October – March). Tours run for about 90 minutes and bookings are essential.
Children are welcome on the tour but it’s not generally appropriate for kids who are prone to nightmares or are very young.
You should wear practical walking shoes as the ground is uneven in many of the rooms and walking between places. Likewise, it’s probably not the best tour for people with mobility issues or need a wheelchair as there is about 2km of walking in total.
Learn more about a visit to the Port Arthur Historic Site and buy your Port Arthur entry ticket in advance.
Would We Recommend the Port Arthur Ghost Tour?
We didn’t see any bizarre occurrences, or smell anything, or feel any ghosts, but I was not disappointed. The vivid stories of unexplained events and the chance to see Port Arthur after sunset was an adventure in itself.
Not only did we learn about the hauntings at Port Arthur, 1,600 documented cases so far, but we learned a lot about the history of the convict settlement and the lives of those who once lived there. The stories themselves are spine chilling!
We giggled and had fun, Craig and I clung together like love struck teenagers again under the full moon, and we got to see a very different place to the beauty of Port Arthur under a moonlit night.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I’m even considering next time I go on a grand search for the ghosts myself, tracking them with the equipment supplied on the paranormal tour hosted at the end of each month. A real Ghostbuster. That’s taking it to a whole new level.
Will the Port Arthur ghost tour freak you out? Maybe. But it’s a fun freak and as Mark said,
“It’s not the dead you have to worry about, it’s the living. When was the last time a ghost hurt you? The only time you have to worry, is if they recognize you back.”
Or perhaps, as I suggested, if they follow you home.
A little girl has sometimes been known to, Marc told us. Craig and I checked our back seat and the rear view mirror a few times on the drive home.
But once again, it was not the dead we had to worry about, but the living – the wildlife that appeared from the bushes at the edge of the road at night time, ready to dart in front of our car at any moment, threatening to send us to become residents of the most haunted place in Australia.
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What do you think of ghost tours? Would you try this? Let us know in the comments.
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