So maybe you're thinking of taking a night tour of a Brisbane cemetery? Well, maybe not, but some
In a couple of months the wet summer season will just about be over and the Moonlight Tours 2012 season will begin. Weather permitting, our first night tour of South Brisbane Cemetery this year will take place on Friday 13 April - one of three Black Fridays this year.* We love doing the tours. Some are quiet, some are busy, but they are all really enjoyable. The cemetery is a special place to be at night, it has an atmosphere all of its own, and showing it to people who have interest enough to actually come along on a tour is always a pleasure.
As you will see below there are a couple of choices for taking a cemetery night tour in this city, and this article will spell out four very solid reasons why you should take your tour with us:
1. You save money
Down to the nitty-gritty to begin with. Moonlight Tours only cost $15 per adult ($12.50 kids), which comparatively speaking is bloody cheap. That comparison being of course the only other night tour available at the cemetery, the ghost tour, which costs $35 (did you know Brisbane has the most expensive basic ghost tours in Australia?**). So for two people that's a saving of $40 right there, enough to round out the night with some food, drink or a movie afterwards.
What's more, there are free juice and biccies after the tour. Also, if tour has to be cancelled because of the weather (there's nothing "atmospheric" about hiding under an umbrella not being able to hear the guide over the noise of the rain, or having a tree fall on you during a gale) we won't keep your money if you've pre-paid.
2. You can actually talk to us
There are two kinds of guided tours. The first is the type where the guide is 'in character' and strictly sticks to a script. Usually this character is maintained before, during and after the event, so you can't ask questions or chat about the things that most interested you during the tour. This is theatre-restaurant-type infotainment which can be enjoyable enough, but rather one-dimensional information-wise.
The other type of tour is what we do. The hosts are 'themselves' (actual historians) and know enough on the subject area to engage you on an individual level, taking your questions and responding to discussion. We believe this to be one of the best qualities of the Moonlight Tours. Tracey Olivieri, the lead tour guide, grew up in the area and knows the cemetery like the back of her hand, and its always great to listen to her fielding questions from the tour groups and having a chat. After the tour you can hang around and have a follow-up chat with the guides if you want.
3. You'll get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but...
We respect your intelligence, and work hard to make sure that what we tell people is actually true and backed up by the historical record. We aren't going to make up stories. When we first started the tours in 2010 Cameron 'Jack' Sim of Ghost Tours, upset that a not-for-profit community group was 'competing' with his small business, wrote an email to Brisbane City Council complaining that on our first tour (and I quote): "Several stories were clearly directed at undermining old ghost stories of the cemetery with historical 'facts'."
Let's be clear about this. The only thing that facts undermine is fiction. You have to have serious doubts about a so-called history tour that is undermined by historical facts.
Anyway, we're not the only people to notice these problems. A distinctly unimpressed reviewer in Qweekender (24-25 September 2011) pointed out (among other complaints) a series of historical inaccuracies in the tour's 'flawed' stories, and found that 'accuracy was wanting'. This kind of thing has been covered before (try here and here for example), but on a 'history' tour you really need to be sure that you are hearing fact and not fiction. Otherwise what's the point?
So there you have four good reasons to take a tour with us. It's affordable, interactive, factual, and for a good cause.
If you're convinced, you can book your tour by popping off an email to one of these addresses:
As for money, you can pay at the gate on the night. Too easy.
Anyway, we're not the only people to notice these problems. A distinctly unimpressed reviewer in Qweekender (24-25 September 2011) pointed out (among other complaints) a series of historical inaccuracies in the tour's 'flawed' stories, and found that 'accuracy was wanting'. This kind of thing has been covered before (try here and here for example), but on a 'history' tour you really need to be sure that you are hearing fact and not fiction. Otherwise what's the point?
4. What we do with the money
Our tour license with the Brisbane City Council requires us to spend the majority of all tour revenue on heritage projects, so even you think the tour was the worst rubbish you've heard in your entire life then at least the money is doing some good. Last year we produced the booklet South Brisbane Cemetery A-Z of R.I.P., featuring short biographies of some of the cemetery's residents. The thinking behind this was that the more people know about places like this, the more inclined they are to protect them.
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| We used the rest of the cash to give our cat a money bath on board the Moonlight Tours yacht. |
So there you have four good reasons to take a tour with us. It's affordable, interactive, factual, and for a good cause.
If you're convinced, you can book your tour by popping off an email to one of these addresses:
As for money, you can pay at the gate on the night. Too easy.
* That's about as many Black Fridays as you can get in one year (there was only one last year). The last time there was three was in 2009, and the next will be 2015. It won't happen again during a leap year until 2040).
**For example, a ghost tour of a top-shelf (and World Heritage-listed) place like Port Arthur only costs $22, while mainland Australia's longest-running ghost tours, in Melbourne, cost $20.
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