Could Picton return as a ghost hotspot?

PICTON’s  status as a “haunted” tourist attraction may be rejuvenated after the entire township was ranked in the top 18 of “Australia’s most haunted places”.

St Marks Graveyard, Picton, which is also believed to be haunted. Picture: Robert Pozo

PICTON’s  status as a “haunted” tourist attraction may be rejuvenated after the entire township was ranked in the top 18 of “Australia’s most haunted places”.

The town was ranked alongside the Old Melbourne Gaol, Tasmania’s Port Arthur and Victoria’s Beechworth Asylum in an online news service’s most haunted places to visit.

A ghost-hunting group The Life After Life Investigation Team is planning to return the ghost-seeking culture to Picton after four years without the ghost tours which put the town on the tourist map.

Picton shot to international fame thanks to the popular Picton Ghost Hunt, run by the late historian and Macarthur Chronicle columnist Liz Vincent before her death in 2009. Her husband John continued the tours until 2011 after facing development approval issues with Wollondilly Council.

St Marks Graveyard, Picton, which is also believed to be haunted. Picture: Robert Pozo

Picture: Robert Pozo

Picture: Robert Pozo

The Life After Life Investigation Team is enthusiastic about returning ghost tours to the township.

“We’re going to be holding ghost tours at Mowbray Park Farm and then hopefully expanding to other places in Picton,” co-founder Corrine McCarthy said.

Mr Vincent recalled how the ghost tours made Picton famous.

“The tours were a huge tourist attraction. We estimated we were bringing in an absolute minimum of 200 people a week,” Mr Vincent said.

“It gave Picton a profile that most other towns would kill for ... I would love to see it return for the good of Picton.”

John Vincent with daughter Jenny Davies inside the Redbank Range Tunnel.

The entrance of the Redbank Range Tunnel.

Wollondilly Mayor Col Mitchell said the ghost tours attracted a lot of interest in the area.

“They were great for tourism,” Cr Mitchell said.

“They attracted people that wouldn’t have visited otherwise and anything that creates tourism is a good thing.”

But he warned future operators would need to lodge a development application with the council before any tours went ahead.

“Previous tours created a few problems with disturbances for residents because they were held at night,” he said. “It would probably depend on where it was going to be held and the times.”

Picton Chamber of Commerce president Aaron Greffenius said the former tours attracted worldwide attention and the resurrection would do wonders for accommodation businesses and others in town.