Z Ward
- A former Adelaide lunatic asylum for the “criminally insane”, including those deemed a danger to themselves and/or others. Some inmates from Adelaide Gaol who could not be “controlled” at the prison were transferred here.
The rather elaborate brick building was constructed from 1885 and went into operation in 1888. It had space for 40-45 patients/inmates, housed in high-ceilinged, well-ventilated single cells with sparse and secured furnishings. There was also a Dining & Day Room for them too, though.
Originally the institution had been called “L Ward”, but after telephones were installed in 1900 it became clear that the name was often misheard as “hell ward”, so they changed it to “Z Ward”. It was decommissioned at the end of 1973, with the last ten patients transferred elsewhere. After that the building stood largely disused except for its use as storage space for the government’s mining department.
From 2014 onwards, the local community campaigned for the dilapidated site to be integrated into the National Trust of South Australia. In 2023 the handover to the Trust was finally sealed and the site became open to the general public – albeit only on guided tours.
The main type of tours conducted here, however, are of the “Ghost Hunts” sort and other such paranormal stuff that on this website is excluded from the concept of dark tourism and not covered. Yet in addition to those after dark “ghost” tours there are also occasional “history tours” without superstitious core elements.
It was one of those “normal” tours that I had wanted to go on when I began planning my trip to Australia in 2024, but when I contacted the site about this, the only date they could offer was sometime after the days my schedule had for Adelaide in early August. When I pointed this out in my reply and asked if some other arrangements could be made so that I could include the site in my research for my website, I never heard anything again, so I was forced to skip it. Hence I can’t say anything about what those tours might be like; nor can I provide any photos. In the unlikely event that I should ever make it back to Adelaide, I’ll try to plan it better and hopefully have more luck. That’s made difficult, though, by the fact that those history tours seem to take place only very rarely, one every few weeks, but you cannot book more than two months ahead (and all tours tend to sell out quickly). The history tours last two hours, cost ca. 40 AUD and must be booked ahead. The minimum age for participants is 16.
Location: at the rear of 63 Conyngham Street in the district of Glenside to the south-east of Adelaide’s CBD (Central Business District) and the parklands that surround it, some 3.5 km (2.3 miles) from the central Victoria Square.
Google Maps locator: [-34.9428, 138.6323]