J Ward Museum

We have always driven past on our way to Melbourne.....good timing it was open and the tours started a little earlier school holidays.....we had Harry as the best guide, very knowledgeable and informative about the history of J ward, to think it was still functioning until 1991!!!
A must to see and visit! Highly recommended 👌

Absolutely enjoyed this tour. Our tour guide, Alan was so knowledgeable of all the dates and happenings while it was a hospital and a gaol. Some of the stories were fabulous shame there were children in the tour we could have had more in depth stories! Still can't believe this was only closed in 1991. A big tick for all the volunteers well done

Extremely awesome place, we went on Friday and were the only ones there so had our tour to ourselves for 2 hours, guide was extremely friendly and had amazing knowledge of the place and we saw areas that had not seen before. Fantastic experience. Would definitely go back again.

A great tourist destination. A must see. All the upkeep is from the admission fee. Something like this should have help from the government. We'd like to thank Alan for his time. He makes a great tour guide and all in his own time. All staff are super friendly. This has some great history. Highly recommend. I don't think there has been anyone disappointed I have spoken to that has been here. Keep up the good work. 10/10

Great place to visit as both tourist and a local. Our tour guide was very friendly and very knowledgeable and kept us entertained for the full hour and a half.
No restrictions on taking photos or touching items in the building which is great.
Good for children but be aware that it was a jail and asylum so there are mature topics discussed regarding the history.

Amazing tour guides. Very knowledgeable. Some actually worked there when it was open. Great for ghost hunting and true crime enthusiasts. Some well known criminals resided here. Yes Chopper was there too at one stage. If you loved visiting Pentridge, you will love J Ward.

Absolutely loved the tour, was an eye opener to how they were treated poorly.

Excellent tour. We had Peter, he was very polite and informative, he answered all our questions and provided excellent knowledge of the gaol/hospital during the 2hr tour. Very old and well maintained buildings and grounds. Well worth a visit

We enjoyed our visit, loved learning and hearing about its history. Highly recommend a visit! We did however find ourselves torn between listening to the tour guides awesome stories or reading all the other stories (or get left behind :)). Would come back, maybe a self-guided tour would also be a nice alternative to pace ourselves?

I selected to do a guided tour rather than wonder around on my own. It was really great and well worth the money, especially since all ticket sales go towards maintaining the place. I was lucky to be the only one there on Sunday afternoon, so I got the VIP experience with Harry.

I found him to be very knowledgeable and more than happy to answer any questions I had. Harry had plenty of stories to tell and even his very own personal link to JWard. I got to wander around the jail section by myself for 15mins at one point but the highlight was getting to go up into the guard tower.

I recommend doing a guided tour as you'll get to see sections of the place that you'll not be able to see wandering around on your own.

Spending the night here is a great way to up your level of ghost tours! A lot of freedom through out the whole night to wander around. Staff were friendly, provided lil gadgets to assist in getting reactions. Whilst it was pretty quiet for us it was still very eerie & after hearing all the stories you still have a great experience! 100% worth spending a night in a criminally insane prison with so much history!

Had a great tour of J Ward when visiting Ararat recently. Anne was a very knowledgeable guide and provided great insight into the lives of those who were sent / worked there. The musuem is well looked after by the Friends of J Ward and a must visit if ever in Ararat.

It was great to learn the history andchear the tales of what happened.
The tour guide was very knowledgeable, would have loved to be able to walk and read all the information in each section before moving on.

Great experience. Our tour guide, Anne, was really knowledgeable and it made me want to know more about the history of the place. Will definitely be back and actually want to do Ghost tour in Aradale as well.

After a internet search while passing through the area, we stumbled upon J Ward, and as soon as we seen it from the outside we knew we were doing a tour. Easy internet booking system. Arrived onsite and was welcomed by a lovely lady at the main reception. Our guide for the tour was John who was very knowledgeable about the site, he took pride in telling us all about the history and stories. You could tell he was very pleased to show off the work the Friends of J Ward have put into the site and it reflected in the condition and the displays around the property.

Very informative tour with our guide Peter. Interesting to hear the history and changes to the facility over the years from when it opened as a prison to when it converted to Jward as part of the Aradale Asylum to its closing.

Amazing tour, so knowledgeable and so much of the gaol is original and still in tact. I've done many old gaol tours around Australia and this is by far the best one Ive done. Will be back to bring family next time.

Wow Rob was a great tour guide. The stories he told were interesting and hair raising as well. This place has lots if history. So well presented and well maintained. Rob asked if we wanted to see the 12 min DVD with some of the prisoners on and yes that was worth it. One prisoner or should I say patient believed he was Princess Margarets partner and waited for the queen to release him. He had to have his front teeth removed cos he had a habit of biting people! Sad that people were locked up like this but some were extremely dangerous. I am really can’t recommend this place enough

Well worth the 150km detour from Hamilton before heading into the Grampians. Plan enough time, our 1-1.5h tour took 2.5h. Absolutely fascinating, yet a sad reminder of the past.

The entire family absolutely loved the tour...our guide was amazing... highly recommend.