The hospital ward is another prime location for unexplainable sightings. Until recently the National Park Service also offered visitors to the Quarantine Station the unique experience of a sleepover on site. This took place in the old hospital building. This activity unfortunately had to been pulled from the schedule; apparently this is not the most restful location in Sydney to sleep!

Locked doors constantly opening in the middle of the night, and sightings of a “floating light” moving from bed to bed, were a tad off-putting to some of the visitors and staff who chose to stay the night. The hospital, like the accommodation facilities, were divided on the same class lines as the visiting ships, with first and second class enjoying a greater comfort than those who had the misfortune to be both ill and from third class or from the ranks of the crew. Another unusual but amusing story from the hospital building comes from a previous nightly tour.

A particularly loud and irritating visitor made a number of disparaging comments about the standard of matrons housekeeping. His annoying interruptions were soon silenced however when he first found himself locked in the hospitals bathroom and then, experienced sharp stabbing pains in his back when he rested on one of the hospital beds. This particular tale was shared in a timely and affective manner by our guide to silence the over exuberant youths on our own tour!

One of the more chilling stops on our walk is the shower block at the wharf entrance to the station. Each new arrival, whether they showed signs of infection or not, were required to go through this decontamination process. A soothing mix of water and fennel (carbolic acid) were the ingredients of this mandatory wash. One of the now retired tour guides (this appears to be repeating occurrence at the Quarantine Station!), experienced a silent, hovering intruder one night after returning to switch off the shower block lights. After calling for a response from this person standing unmoving in the building’s doorway, the guide chose a more confronting approach, running headlong at the doorway, and straight through.

But not all of the stories shared on the ghost tour are so scary, some are just downright funny. Like the young local couple who, in an attempt to find a private beach, moved from one secluded cove to another until they finally wondered into the grounds of the Quarantine Station. In addition to having to deal with the embarrassment of being “discovered” by the station’s staff, they had to endure the additional mortification of discovering the station was in a state of Quarantine and were therefore confined to the station for the duration.

But what of Dr. Reid and the morgue? This is a simple wooden building that makes an ideal setting for the guides to share one of the countless tales of strange and mysterious sightings. I noted through the window that the office section of the morgue had been dressed with a desk, chair and white-coated black-haired mannequin seated at the desk. Glancing back in the window as we were about to depart, I noticed the “mannequin” was no longer there. With no sense of a ghostly experience, it only occurred that I may have experienced something unusual when I noted a portrait of a jet black haired Dr. Reid later in the station’s former smoking room. I can only say I felt I got my money’s worth with this enthralling and unusual night’s entertainment!

   1 :: 2 :: 3