J Ward

J Ward & Aradale Mental Hospital - A former prison and lunatic asylum for the “criminally insane” in the small town of Ararat, Victoria, Australia . Constructed between 1859 and 1861 originally as a county gaol , it also saw a number of executions. But then the building was converted into a psychiatric prison in 1886/87 and renamed J Ward to form a part of the Ararat Lunatic Asylum, later Aradale Mental Hospital . The former gaol had space for just over 50 inmates/patients and kept fulfilling its assigned role as a maximum security psychiatric ward for over a century. It was closed only in 1991. The rest of the much larger general mental hospital was also wound down around that time, with the last ward being closed in 1997/98. J Ward was opened again in 1993, this time for the general public as a museum, though only on guided tours. Parts of the grounds of the former Aradale Hospital became an education and research centre (which has its own olive grove and vineyard!) in the early 2000s. There are tours here too as well as a “Discovery Centre”, with documents, letters, photos, newspapers, etc., which are probably only for a special-interest clientele. J Ward can be visited by guided day tours , which take place daily at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (on weekends and public holidays also at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., except at Christmas). They last ca. 1.5 hours and cost 17 AUD per person (some concessions apply) and should be booked online ahead of time. At Aradale there’s a stronger focus on evening “ghost tours” (although J Ward offers some of those too, on Fridays and Saturdays), which are of no relevance here, though (like all things paranormal , which are excluded from coverage on this website). But they also offer Day Historical Tours , which should be of more interest to readers of this website. These, however, take place only on Sundays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m., they last ca.