Feature by Carolyn Beasley
Trick or treating, gorging on lollies and hanging plastic skeletons might be great for Halloween, but Western Australia knows how to quench the thirst for ghoulish travels all year. From north to south, spooky experiences and hidden ghost towns are waiting to unnerve you with a fun dose of the quirky and the creepy. Hit the road for goose bumps at these top sites.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle
Fremantle Prison, Perth
Built in the 1850s by convict labour in Fremantle / Walyalup, Fremantle Prison operated as a maximum-security facility until 1991. The prison is WA’s only World Heritage-listed building, and even boasts a youth hostel inside its walls. Various tours are offered, but the scariest of all is the genuinely creepy torchlight tour. Join your guide to walk the darkened corridors, hearing tales of ghoulish encounters and real-life criminals, harsh punishments and even executions gone wrong. Be warned, this tour isn’t for the faint hearted!
Gwalia Ghost Town, Leonora
Follow the Golden Quest Discovery Trail deep into the goldfields, where the souls of countless miners’ dwell. In Gwalia ghost town near Leonora, gold was discovered in 1896. The mine closed in 1963, and the camps were quickly abandoned. The townsfolk of Leonora later restored the ramshackle huts, and today, visitors explore them inside and out. In a long-dead tree, rusty teapots are hanging, clinking in the breeze, while a decaying piano rests silent on a porch. At Mrs Patroni’s Guest Home, there’s even ‘food’ on the dining table. Check in to the restored mine manager’s residence, Hoover House Bed and Breakfast on the edge of the re-opened mine. If there’s a ghost here, it may be Herbert Hoover, the original manager and later, president of the USA.
Gwalia Ghost Town
Kookynie Living Ghost Town
While you’re exploring gold rush history, stroll through the living ghost town of Kookynie. In 1903 the town had 400 buildings and a population of 2,320. Interpretive signage conjures the town’s heyday from the ruins, including its characters, two red-light districts, swimming pool, racecourse and seven hotels. These days, Kookynie consists of 13 residents and the Grand Hotel, circa 1900. Pop in for a beer and pub meal in this outback icon, where the most famous regular customer is Willy the ex-racehorse, who wanders inside the bar, whenever he pleases.
Grand Hotel, Kookynie
Albany Convict Gaol and Museum
Albany Convict Goal and Museum in historic Albany / Kinjarling was built in 1852 to house convicts from England, who were used as labourers. By 1941, it was left derelict. Decades later, after years of restoration, the gaol opened as a museum in 1996, and today is staffed by friendly volunteers who offer informal tours. Duck your head through the short door frames, and step into the cold darkness of the isolation cell to imagine the despair felt by inmates. Ramp up the spook-factor by booking a private night time tour, if you dare.
Cossack Ghost Town
The Pilbara ghost town of Cossack was established in 1863 on the banks of the Harding River, the first port of Australia’s north west. Cossack was home to the first pearling industry in WA and was important for early gold miners and pastoralists in the region. With the construction of better facilities at Port Samson, Cossack was abandoned in 1950, however beautifully restored blue-stone buildings remain here. The self-guided Cossack Heritage Trail leads through the Asian and European cemeteries, the grand courthouse, police barracks, the original wharf site and the Cossack Museum.
New Norcia Abbey Church Clock Tower
New Norcia, Australia’s only monastic town, was settled in 1847 by Benedictine monks, who still own the town and live in the monastery. Join a guided tour to see inside many unique buildings, including the Abbey Church with its German organ and rare “sgraffito” artworks. But aside from regular Catholic spirituality, some say there are other spirits here, too. Rumour has it that the ghost of a nun in a blue habit wanders through the church’s clock tower at night. She’s supposedly Sister Maria Harispe, a missionary here for 17 years before she died of cancer in 1925, aged 44.
Pinnacles night tour
The Pinnacles / Nambung in Nambung National Park is one of WA’s most eerie landscapes. Rising mysteriously from a sand dune, thousands of limestone pillars reach skywards, the remains of seashells laid down 500,000 years ago. With a little imagination, the Pinnacles could be a swathe of tombstones, and if you visit late in the afternoon, the lengthening shadows turn this in to an otherworldly experience. Join the night time stargazing tour with Australian Pinnacle Tours to soak up the unpolluted starry sky and experience the silence of this ethereal moonscape.
The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park
Published October 2023.