While already taking shape, Pentridge Prison will become a major Melbourne tourist attraction come spring 2022. The National Trust and its partners will rejuvenate Divisions A, B and H—nicknamed Hell Division—and transform the site into an ideal destination for visitors. What that means for the spirits that call Bluestone College home, we’re not too sure. However, you can try to ask them yourself on the Pentridge Prison Ghost Tour.
Book a 90-minute tour of one of Australia’s most notorious prisons.
This historical prison in Coburg, which opened in 1851 and closed in 1997, has an infamous place in Victoria’s penal history. Rupert Mann, author of Pentridge: Voices From The Other Side, said that the prison was a violent place at rock bottom. Some men suffered in horrific conditions and others lost their lives there. This includes Ronald Ryan, who was the last man to be executed in Australia.
Not only did Pentridge keep behind bars our most famous bushranger Ned Kelly, but it has also been home to infamous figures such as Mark ”Chopper” Read, Julian Knight (Hoddle Street Massacre), and Gregory David Roberts—author of Shantaram and one of Pentridge’s escapees.
You can find out about all of this and more on the Pentridge Prison D Division Ghost Tour, which takes place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Over the course of 90 minutes, guests will hear dark tales and discover some tough truths regarding Australia’s hardest and longest-serving prisoners thanks to Lantern Ghost Tours—Australia’s largest ghost tour operators.
And beware, at one stage the prison did have 44 bodies buried on site.
Book in your tour of Pentridge Prison before it becomes Melbourne’s next major tourist attraction. It’s already home to Palace Cinemas.