When everything goes dark and Brisbane falls quiet, the chills and thrills come out to play. Every week, tour groups on tenterhooks wander through Brisbane’s most haunted spaces, exploring graves, gallows and an island you can’t escape.
Ready to find out what goes bump in the night? Take a breath: your next night out looks like a scream on one of Brisbane's best ghost tours.
Boggo Road Gaol
Dutton Park
Sidle close to your trusty tour buddy: this spine-tingling Brisbane ghost tour is enough to make anyone jump. Three nights a week, torch-lit groups are led through one of Australia’s most notorious prisons. We’ve heard whispers of ghostly wails that echo through these halls, a reminder of the infamous gallows and the prisoners who never left.
Editor's note: Boggo Road Gaol is temporarily closed due to a new development happening next door
Toowong Cemetery
Toowong
It’s a familiar sight to those on the west side, but when daylight isn’t on your side, Brisbane’s biggest cemetery is anything but comforting. After dark, groups step through the gates of Toowong Cemetery for Brisbane’s O.G. ghost tour. Think you’re up to the task? You’ll explore the moonlit graves of governors, convicts and the city’s oldest residents, including those still rumoured to wander the grounds. Gulp.
South Brisbane Cemetary
Dutton Park
There's more than one creepy graveyard in Brisbane, and the South Brisbane Cemetary happens to be the second largest in Queensland—and the creepiest. You'll hear ghost stories about former grave diggers as well as the spirits of criminals and the executed inmates of Boggo Road Gaol on a two hour walking tour through the thousands of graves.
Ipswich Cemetery
Ipswich
Your date night with the supernatural awaits. Ipswich residents swear that the town’s oldest cemetery, sprawling over six acres of haunted trails, is your best bet of catching some paranormal activity. Follow the lantern light as your guide leads you through a nail-biting ghost tour of Ipswich’s most haunted graves—but watch your step. In the shadows of the old city asylum, you won’t want to be left behind.
Caboolture Historical Village
Caboolture
Want the sun on your side? We don’t blame you. For anyone who can't handle a moonlit night of fright (we feel you), we recommend taking a slow wander through the Caboolture Historical Village—although anyone who had to suffer through a school trip to this creepy town in their younger days is no doubt still getting over the nightmares. With over 70 buildings that date back over a century, the stories within will have you on tenterhooks. It might be broad daylight, but you’ll still catch those goosebumps as you explore the old hospital, the lockup and the morgue.
St Helena Island
St Helena Island
If you prefer night shows to nightmares, this is the Brisbane ghost tour for you. On St Helena Island, dinner comes with a side of adrenaline as you tour the ruins of a maximum security prison. Performers showcase some of the island’s most colourful stories—but before you escape the island, you’ll have to wander through the old cemetery. Good luck.
Need to unwind after the fright of your life? Check out Brisbane’s best places to soak and steam.
Image credit: rewindyourtime/Flickr