2SER Breakfast

We did this last year for Halloween and it was both scary and fun (if you missed out, check out Get Away with Dre’s 2023 Spooky Sydney Spots), this year we’ve decided to bring it back because Sydney seems to have a cauldron full of spooky spots.

What’s not scary is the price tag. These are free for you to visit at any time, the only cost is your sanity… visit if you dare **cue evil laugh**

Campbelltown Town Hall

Looks like the McArthur Region is full of scary stories. We mentioned the old railway tunnel in Picton last year, this one is closer to the heart of Campbelltown and one that is known over the years, they even have a festival dedicated to this ghost.

This is the legend of Fred Fisher’s ghost. Fred Fisher died on the evening of June 17 1826. Fred Fisher was a convict brought to Australia like every other convict from England. He made a name for himself in the McArthur area, became a business man and owned several properties.

He went out drinking at the local pub with his business partner George Worrell and a few mates on June 17 1826 and never made it home. He went missing for months and when questioned George Worrell told everyone he went back to England. Things started to get fishy when Worrell started claiming some of Fisher’s properties but noone could prove he did anything.

After a few months, John Farley, one of Fisher’s neighbour whos owns a farm next to one of Fisher’s property was visited by Fisher’s ghost. Fred Fisher stayed on his side of the property and pointed to the creek when Farley approached him. With the help of the Police and an Aboriginal tracker, they found his body buried 3 feet undground by the creek which led to evidence pointing to George Worrell as his murderer. It took the jury 15 minutes to find George Worrell guilty, he confessed and was executed. 

Now why is the Campbelltown Town Hall Theatre haunted? It currently sits on George Worrell’s former land and people have spotted Fred Fisher’s ghost throughout the years. You can visit Campbelltown Town Hall Theatre for free and it’s easy to get to. It’s on Queen Street near Campbelltown train station, next to Campbelltown Mall and a walk from Koshigaya Park.    

Fred Fisher’s story was so famous they turned it into a festival celebrated every year – Festival of Fisher’s Ghost. It started in 1956 and now comes complete with concerts, rides and a roller skate rink. Who wouldn’t celebrate a ghost that helped solve his own murder?

Gladesville Mental Hospital

Ah, asylums – where horror stories are made. This is not the first haunted mental hospital in NSW, but this was Sydney’s first purpose-built mental asylum in 1838 and went by the business name of the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum. 

You didn’t need to be “clinically insane” to be checked in. Some patients suffered PTSD after the war or accidents, some were depressed, and some were just victims of domestic violence standing up for themselves which caused them to be institutionalised.  

The idea for the place was to rehabilitate then release, but the asylum was overcrowded. Patients were being neglected, abused and unethically restrained – all treatments used by nurses and doctors, alongsided shock therapy. Patients would die and due to stigma of a mental asylum and family members having a “mental issue” these patients were ignored by their families and some would not collect their bodies after death. The bodies would pile up and were thrown into an unmarked grace at the asylum.

The place closed down in 1993, was decommissioned in 1997 and it currently stands abandoned with the land and building still owned by the Department of Health.

The Herald made an inquiry in 2010 and it showed the bones of 1,228 inmates and staff buried there with no headstones or markings. The names, dates of admission and date of death of 923 patients are listed in the register of the Department of Health, but 305 identities are unaccounted for. 

In 2019 they held the first memorial to commemorate the unmarked graves of the 1,228 inmates. You’ll find it there and the names of every resident who lived and died at the asylum online

You can check out the abandoned Gladesville Mental Hospital in Gladesville, just off Victoria Rd at Suttor St and Eddy Ave. It’s near the banks of the Parramatta River, so if you’re really spooked you can take your mind off it all and do a nice walk along the water from the Parramatta River Regional Park to Banjo Patterson Park and back.

Quarantine Station, North Head, Manly

Now renamed Q-station, but this modern name does nothing for it’s notorious reputation, because it’s still is known as one of Australia’s most haunted sites.

This was the first port of call for ships coming in during the colonial times that were carrying passengers with contagious diseases. People would check-in, some checked-out, while others died there from their disease or other super shady reason. 

From August 1828 till Feburary 1984, it had 580 ships detained, 16,000 people quarantined. It has 572 recorded burials, however there was no record during the first 9 years, so it’s estimated death count should be over 600.

The grave diggers cottage is the scariest, named as such because the house sits between 2 grave sites of people that died in the station. There is also history of a woman murdered in the cottage from a drowning in the bathtub. People have had the feeling of being underwater whilst visiting the cottage.

Other places that gave people more than just the chills is the Hospital building, the communal showers and the former laundry room. 

You can visit this place on your own, or join a ghost tour. These tours have been around since the 1990s – that’s the kind of rich spooky and paranormal history of activity this place has hidden in its walls.

It’s part of Sydney Harbour National Park, such a picturesque place, and now a place with top-notch accommodation, top-notch restaurant, venues and outdoor sites for conferences and wedding, as well as tours and educational programs.

You can get there by car, bus or private boat charter.