‘Dark tourism’ predictions for Leongatha a load of rubbish

LAST Saturday, The Good Weekend magazine, which appears in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, ran a story about ‘The Leongatha Mushroom Murder House’ being Australia’s newest ‘dark tourism’ site.

It sounded like a load of hogwash.

But we took a run down to Gibson Street anyway.

Turns out there was something going on down there - someone had put the green bin out!

And they’d mowed the nature strip too. Maybe they put the cuttings in the bin.

We took the opportunity to ask a few of the locals if they’d seen a steady stream of cars kicking up the dust as they went down Worthy Street in recent weeks or maybe a tour bus or two - no.

“I’m not standing out the front that often but no, I haven’t seen any,” said one near neighbour.

There wasn’t much else to say except to apologise for being a nuisance.

“That’s ok. No problem,” she said as she helped her hubby get the shopping out of the car.

That’s your “dark tourism site” for you - a green bin out the front of Leongatha’s most photographed and filmed home, and a newly trimmed lawn.

So, no, Leongatha isn’t going to attract the crowds anytime soon, thank goodness.

But recent research from the University of New England has pointed to a rise in dark tourism around Australia, although a feature of the most visited of these sites is their historic perspective.

Australia’s most famous dark tourism sites include:

• Port Arthur Historic Site (Tasmania). Australia’s most famous dark-tourism destination. A former penal colony where brutal punishment, isolation cells, and mass graves were the norm. The site of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre which adds a modern layer of tragedy.
• Old Melbourne Gaol (Victoria). Home of Australia’s most notorious criminal, Ned Kelly, who was executed here in 1880.
• Beechworth Gaol (Victoria). Another Ned Kelly–connected site, and still partially operational today. Its long history of executions, mental illness, and isolation makes it quietly eerie.
• Sarah Island (Tasmania). Often described as Australia’s harshest penal settlement. Escapes were nearly impossible, punishments extreme, and survival uncertain. Even Port Arthur was considered “better” by comparison.
• Cape Grim (Tasmania). Site of the Cape Grim massacre (1828), where dozens of Aboriginal people were killed by settlers. A powerful and confronting example of colonial violence rather than prison history.