Morgues, opium dens and ghosts of the past, Jacqueline Travaglia shares her love of the paranormal in specially organised tours
There’s more to the quaint seaside suburb of Williamstown than cafes and beaches. The historic seaport is home to Victoria’s oldest morgue, an opium den and more than its fair share of paranormal activity as discovered on a Lantern Ghost Tour.
Lantern Ghost Tours founder Jacqueline Travaglia ran her very first ghost tour of Williamstown in 2009 to share her love of the paranormal. “I grew up in Williamstown and loved exploring its hidden laneways and old 19th century buildings but wasn’t until I lived in a haunted house when I was 12 years old that I really started believing in the paranormal,” she says.
Its previous owner, unwilling to move on, haunted her 19th century Williamstown cottage. Jacqui and her family learnt to accept the ghost as part of the furniture and a lifelong passion for the supernatural was sparked.
Jacqui and her team take Williamstown residents and visitors on a two-hour lantern-lit tour of Williamstown every Friday and Saturday night. During the tour guests have theopportunity to go inside buildings not open to the public including the oldest morgue in Victoria, an opium den and one of only a handful of remaining timeball towers in the world.
To book visit www.lanternghosttours.com or call 1300 390 119
About the Ghosts of the Old City Tour
• Explore King William’s Town, the original capital of Victoria, by lamp light.
• Steeped with history, apparitions, alleyways and lager it was once a thriving town full of colourful ladies, drunken sailors and convicts.
• Visit abandoned morgues, forgotten cemeteries and hidden laneways in Victoria’s most historic seaport.
• Visit Victoria’s oldest morgue, Melbourne’s only opium den and Australia’s Timeball Tower.
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