After just 17 months Adam (pictured above) and Sharon Wynne-Jenkins’ business is one of the busiest ghost tours in Australia. The couple now employ three staff and run as many as 12 tours a night seven days a week of the historic Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum in Beechworth. 

Only Port Arthur, one of Australia’s pre-eminent tourism sites, attracts bigger numbers to its ghost tours, making Beechworth Ghost Tours the most popular on mainland Australia. 

Now leased by La Trobe University, the Mayday Hills Asylum opened in 1863 and operated continuously as a mental health facility until it closed in 1995. Both Adam and Sharon Wynne-Jenkins bring a great depth of knowledge to the tours, with generations of their respective families employed there from its earliest days. 

The Ghost Tours reflect the strong overall performance of Indigo Shire as a tourist destination. For the month of August, Shire Visitor Information Centre numbers recorded an increase of just over 20.1 percent, with Beechworth alone jumping 23 percent for the month compared with the same time last year. 

Indigo Shire Tourism Manager, Stuart Perry, said the results were pleasing given forecasts of a gloomy industry outlook and in the wake of the February bushfires which had a strongly negative, but nevertheless short-lived impact on tourism to the region. 

He said that the diversity and quality of attractions the area offered including a robust calendar of events throughout the year which in August included the Beechworth Ned Kelly Weekend,and the Kelly Country Pick, the Chiltern Antiques Fair, Spring Migration Festival and the Elizabeth Chong dinner at All Saints Wahgunyah, were strong factors in attracting visitors to the Shire. The focus on the area’s gold heritage, links with Ned Kelly, abundance of fine local food and wine, promotion of cycle tourism and outstanding natural beauty all contributed to the area’s growing popularity. 

Visit www.beechworthonline.com.au/events, www.rutherglenvic.com, www.uniqueyackandandah.com.au or www.chilternvic.com to find more about where to stay and what to do in this lovely part of the world over the coming months.