TITLE: Aradale: The Making of a Haunted Asylum
AUTHOR: David Waldron. Sharn Waldron. Nathaniel Buchanan
PUBLISHER: Arcadia, 2020
ISBN: 1925984915
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
As an institution, the asylum has a very bad press. From the comedic New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting (The Simpsons) to Arkham Asylum (Batman) or Sanitarium (H.P. Lovecraft) the fictionalised version of the asylum or mental health institution runs the gamut from profoundly worrying to outright terrifying. It is a blight on our history, of course, to note that in many cases the truth is as bad as the story.
Aradale, The Making of a Haunted Asylum (hereafter Aradale) is in essence a broad-ranging study of historical asylum practices through the macro-level microcosm of a single case study, that of the former Ararat Lunatic Asylum in Ballarat, known colloquially as Aradale. The building itself, constructed in 1867, is an imposing gothic structure with an equally imposing story, expertly unpicked by authors David Waldron, Sharn Waldron and Nathaniel Buchanan.
Whereas a book such as this might at first glance seem to be rather a niche topic, especially being centred on one asylum only, its strength lies in fact in the co-authorship team who look at the topic presented in Aradale.
Dr David Waldron, a senior lecturer in history at Federation University Australia is a well-respected folklorist also and tackles much of the history and the folklore and beliefs highlighted throughout this book. His previous publications, both his own and co-authored and edited, have all been strong historical and folkloric studies and Aradale is no exception, being further enhanced by the approaches of the other two authors.
Sharn Waldron is amongst other things a member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy and a registered Jungian analyst. Her contributions bring two additional strengths to this work. Firstly, they add voracity and expert analysis to the opinions – both modern and historical – regarding treatments and efficacy of practice within the asylum. But secondly, from the more folkloric perspective, her Jungian approach feeds into some valuable assessment of our underlying beliefs in the human condition and the concepts of archetype with which Jung is associated and which feed heavily into the folklore side of the analysis.
Ararat Asylum is often described as “Australia’s most haunted building”. Logic dictates that we should take issue with this – how many other buildings put up the same claim? But, of course, it does not matter overly much. What is certain is that the building certainly has a contested history, and the contributions of Nathaniel Buchanan add much to this story. He is responsible for developing and promoting the dark tourism aspect of the asylum and it is this angle which is much contested by the groups responsible for running more savoury and wholesome daylight tours of the building. This is a fascinating part of Aradale and one which folklorists will sit up and take notice of. Here, the strength of the book lies not in a fantastical listing of Ararat’s spectres and ghosts but rather in an analysis of the feelings of the two parties who regularly use the building, and the differences between them.
The days of Ararat Asylum being a treatment facility are long gone, but its stories are most certainly not. This book provides valuable insight both into what makes a building ‘haunted’ from a supernatural angle, but equally into what makes its whole essence ‘haunted’ but its past. A past which did some good, but much wrong. A past which is contested on many levels, adapted and adopted by different parties for different reasons.
Aradale is a book which at first glance would be overlooked by many as being irrelevant to any but those in the immediate geographical area. But to think this would be to overlook a valuable analysis of how a building’s past shapes its future and how its histories are recorded, and read, to create an individual lore of its own. At the time of writing, Aradale appears to be available for sale only in Australia. Hopefully an e-book edition might be considered in the future to give it the wider reach that it deserves.
1925984915
AUTHOR: David Waldron. Sharn Waldron. Nathaniel Buchanan
PUBLISHER: Arcadia, 2020
ISBN: 1925984915
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
As an institution, the asylum has a very bad press. From the comedic New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting (The Simpsons) to Arkham Asylum (Batman) or Sanitarium (H.P. Lovecraft) the fictionalised version of the asylum or mental health institution runs the gamut from profoundly worrying to outright terrifying. It is a blight on our history, of course, to note that in many cases the truth is as bad as the story.
Aradale, The Making of a Haunted Asylum (hereafter Aradale) is in essence a broad-ranging study of historical asylum practices through the macro-level microcosm of a single case study, that of the former Ararat Lunatic Asylum in Ballarat, known colloquially as Aradale. The building itself, constructed in 1867, is an imposing gothic structure with an equally imposing story, expertly unpicked by authors David Waldron, Sharn Waldron and Nathaniel Buchanan.
Whereas a book such as this might at first glance seem to be rather a niche topic, especially being centred on one asylum only, its strength lies in fact in the co-authorship team who look at the topic presented in Aradale.
Dr David Waldron, a senior lecturer in history at Federation University Australia is a well-respected folklorist also and tackles much of the history and the folklore and beliefs highlighted throughout this book. His previous publications, both his own and co-authored and edited, have all been strong historical and folkloric studies and Aradale is no exception, being further enhanced by the approaches of the other two authors.
Sharn Waldron is amongst other things a member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy and a registered Jungian analyst. Her contributions bring two additional strengths to this work. Firstly, they add voracity and expert analysis to the opinions – both modern and historical – regarding treatments and efficacy of practice within the asylum. But secondly, from the more folkloric perspective, her Jungian approach feeds into some valuable assessment of our underlying beliefs in the human condition and the concepts of archetype with which Jung is associated and which feed heavily into the folklore side of the analysis.
Ararat Asylum is often described as “Australia’s most haunted building”. Logic dictates that we should take issue with this – how many other buildings put up the same claim? But, of course, it does not matter overly much. What is certain is that the building certainly has a contested history, and the contributions of Nathaniel Buchanan add much to this story. He is responsible for developing and promoting the dark tourism aspect of the asylum and it is this angle which is much contested by the groups responsible for running more savoury and wholesome daylight tours of the building. This is a fascinating part of Aradale and one which folklorists will sit up and take notice of. Here, the strength of the book lies not in a fantastical listing of Ararat’s spectres and ghosts but rather in an analysis of the feelings of the two parties who regularly use the building, and the differences between them.
The days of Ararat Asylum being a treatment facility are long gone, but its stories are most certainly not. This book provides valuable insight both into what makes a building ‘haunted’ from a supernatural angle, but equally into what makes its whole essence ‘haunted’ but its past. A past which did some good, but much wrong. A past which is contested on many levels, adapted and adopted by different parties for different reasons.
Aradale is a book which at first glance would be overlooked by many as being irrelevant to any but those in the immediate geographical area. But to think this would be to overlook a valuable analysis of how a building’s past shapes its future and how its histories are recorded, and read, to create an individual lore of its own. At the time of writing, Aradale appears to be available for sale only in Australia. Hopefully an e-book edition might be considered in the future to give it the wider reach that it deserves.
1925984915