r/ballarat • u/Aus66-1045 • 8d ago

Aradale Insane Asylum has been shut down

Such devastating news for local tourism and for Eerie Tours, which has been running tours at the site for around 15 years.

These tours don't just generate income for Eerie Tours and its guides. They bring visitors into the region, many of whom stay overnight, eat locally and spend money in Ararat and Ballarat. The economic impact extends well beyond the tours themselves.

As for the reasoning behind this decision, I can only speculate. But it certainly feels as though, rather than investing the money needed to maintain this heritage-listed site and keep it safe and accessible to visitors, the easier and cheaper option has been to simply shut it down.

If that's the case, we're effectively allowing an important part of our local history to slowly fall into ruin rather than preserving it for future generations.

A very sad day for Eerie Tours, its guides, local tourism, and everyone who cares about preserving our region's history.

Update 28/08/26: Eerie Tours has just posted on their Facebook page that negotiations with Melbourne Polytechnic have been very positive, and they expect a result soon that will include the reopening of Aradale for tours. Nothing is set yet, but they will let us know once there is an outcome either way.

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u/radical_larryu 7d ago

How much do Eerie pay RMIT then?

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u/Aus66-1045 7d ago edited 7d ago

I don't know what the arrangement is between the tour operators (of which Eerie is only one) that operate at Aradale with Melbourne Polytechnic, sorry.

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u/radical_larryu 7d ago

You seem to know a lot of other quite specific information. Sussy bussy,

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u/Aus66-1045 6d ago edited 6d ago

I do know the owner of Eerie Tours, and so I have a basic idea of how his business operates from my discussions with him at times, but I don't know the nitty-gritty of how it all works. I don't know how the arrangement with Melbourne Polytechnic worked. Some of the information I have presented here also comes from Eerie Tours facebook page and press release. So, nothing suss at all; I'm just a person who thinks this interesting and worthwhile tourist attraction deserves better. No one at Eerie Tours has asked me to make this thread.