If you’re a fan of the supernatural, then Sydney is the right place for you. Packed with abandoned jails, creepy botanic gardens, haunted pubs, and islands trapped in an actual paranormal vortex, there’s no shortage of sites to explore and tours to get around if you’re into getting absolutely spooked.
Get ready to hold your loved ones tight, here are five of Sydney’s best ghost tours.
Garden Gates Ghost Tours
CBD
Inside the Royal Botanic Garden, there’s a haunted tour you need to try if you’re well and truly keen on being scared out of your wits. Now open after hours, Garden Gates is bringing to life its shadowy tree-lined paths, gloomy ponds, and eerie grottos in a series of twilight tours not for the faint-hearted. You’ll be taken around the grounds and get to hear creepy stories of the Garden’s past and yes, bringing your own torch is an absolute must. More info is here.
Q Station
Manly
Not for the faint-hearted, Q Station is really(and we mean really) one of the darkest places to explore in Sydney. This one harbours a bleak history as it was formerly a quarantine station for sickly migrants arriving in Sydney—which feels all too eerily relevant in 2020.
These days, Q Station is the reigning king of ghost tours with a sling of different spooky tours to choose from, including a historical walking tour of the grounds, a ghost tracking session at Q Station’s most haunted sites, an extreme ghost tour loaded with experiments to encourage paranormal activity, and even a spirit searching sleepover (for the true die-hard fans of the poltergeist world).
Cockatoo Island Ghostyard Tours
Cockatoo Island
It’s believed Sydney’s Cockatoo Island site is trapped in a vortex of negative energy as a result of its horrific past, which means its Ghostyard Tours are, well, bloody scary. Apparition sightings and paranormal-induced symptoms (slight queasiness and headaches) are not uncommon here with supernatural occurrences stretching back more than a century. Throughout your night tour of the island, you’ll be equipped with a K-II EMF reader (a device that detects surrounding electromagnetic energy) and a pendulum. If you really can’t get enough of this stuff, after your tour you can glamp on the island overnight.
Paramatta Gaol Ghost Hunting And Tours
Paramatta
Paramatta Gaol has had its fair share of reconstructions, kicking off its life back in 1796, it has earned itself a strong reputation for being one of the most unforgiving locations in Sydney, historically speaking. Still decked out with rows upon rows of original cells, the ghost tours and hunts at Paramatta Gaol are led by The Australian Paranormal Phenomenon Investigators (who have been running these sessions since 2014). Depending on what you can handle, the ghost tours here incorporate stories of sightings around these grounds, while the ghost hunts are a dedicated interactive session packed with all the guidance, tools, and methods you’ll need in order to communicate with any spirits that might still linger on the premises. Just casually.
Ghost Tour Of Historic Sydney
The Rocks
As Sydney's oldest "neighbourhood", The Rocks is thought to be a pretty haunted spot. And while you might have heard stories about opium dens and secret rum tunnels, there's a whole lot of ghostly history to soak up here too. This two-hour interactive ghost tour of The Rocks will delve into its darkest history, including murders, hangings, and something called the "Dead House". You'll hear about a ghost called George who still haunts the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and you'll visit a haunted house built back in1822. Bookings are available here.
For more awesome things to do in Sydney, head over here.
Image credit: Gilberto Olimpio | Q Station
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