General News
7 February, 2026
Ghost tours boosting spirit in Ararat
THE former lunatic asylum Aradale has become a major drawcard for tourism in Ararat, with ghost tours delivering a significant flow-on effect for local businesses and the wider community. Eerie Tours has been operating out of the historic Aradale site for more than a decade, attracting a steady stream of ghost enthusiasts, sceptics and history buffs from across Australia and overseas. Owner of Eerie Tours, Nathaniel Buchanan, said demand for tours continues year-round.
“Our quiet months are busy and our busy months are very busy,” he said.
Mr Buchanan said visitors travel from far and wide to experience Aradale. “I’ve been a tour guide in some of the best buildings in the world. I used to take people around the Vatican. Aradale is one of the best buildings in the world as far as I’m concerned.”
He said the tours play an important role in preserving the site into the future. “To be able to see a small-town asset as awesome as that, and to be able to turn that into a successful tourist attraction, I think it gives credit to how awesome the building is.”
Mr Buchanan estimates the economic flow-on effect from the tours now brings between $4 million and $5 million into the local economy each year.
“About 12-ish years ago, the government did a crunch on our numbers and the economic impact then was calculated at $2.5 million a year,” he said.
“So allowing for inflation and the increase in numbers, which we’re seeing about an eight per cent increase each year, it would easily be between $4 to $5 million a year now.”
Eerie Tours executive assistant Emilee McLean said the wider impact of the tours becomes particularly evident on total fire ban days, when operations must cease.
“We really do see the roll-on effect of our impact in Ararat when we have total fire ban days.
“Because it is a campus, essentially, we can’t operate on total fire ban days. Then what we hear from the accommodation and such in town is that they are also impacted by that. Because we don’t have any real qualitative data to show exactly how many people are cross-booking these things, that’s when we really hear from other businesses in town how significant of an impact that is,” she said.
Ms McLean said interest in the paranormal remains a strong motivator for visitors.
“After the survey we’ve just done on our social media, there was a definite driver of wanting to experience something paranormal. It’s people wanting to make a personal connection so they can create their own story.”
Ms McLean said the tours attract a broad range of visitors.
“We do get a large spectrum of people coming,” she said.
“We have professionals come from the disability industry or the nursing industry to get a historical perspective. We have people come for the architecture, we have people come just for something to do and for entertainment. But for us as a company, we want to use that to teach history. That’s the motivation for us.”
Mr Buchanan said Eerie Tours has now welcomed about 150,000 visitors through Aradale over the past 15 years.
“I reckon 25 per cent of our visitation is from interstate,” he said, explaining that many attendees are repeat customers.
“All the flow-on accommodation and everything associated, and they’ll do that multiple times a year.”
Ms McLean said the business works hard to support other local operators.
“We do try and support the local businesses as well and advertise and tell people where to stay and where to eat,” she said. “We do try and keep those connections with the other businesses around town.”
For business owners like Matt Linsley from Ararat’s Acacia Caravan Park, they are see the roll on effect.
“We get people up pretty much every weekend for ghost tours, both Aradale and J-Ward, the financial benefit is obviously people come and stay and then go into town, they are have meals, breakfast in the morning, it’s all that roll on effect. So it’s fantastic.”
Mr Linsley recognises how total fire bans effect businesses throughout the region, including his own.
“It does effect us, and we don't necessarily know why everyone comes and stays” with so many visitors to the area for a ghost tour, Acacia offers the ability to postpone stays at the caravan park to when tours are rescheduled allowing patrons to keep their bookings for a better day.
Despite the spooks and scares, the attraction of Arardale continues to deliver tangible economic benefits across the town and beyond.
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