If there was ever a time to unveil plans to turn a disused
morgue into a motel, it is a week before Halloween.
Australian businessman Hadyn Pearce
is hoping to convert a former mortuary in southern Tasmania
into the macabre attraction, complete with slabs on which the
living can sleep.
The 1950s psychiatric institution morgue had been left
disused for some ten years, but Mr Pearce is planning to make it an
extension of the 22-room Willow Court Motel that he
already operates in the old hospital ward.
The accommodation would feature the original surgical
equipment and a stainless steel bathtub once used for washing
bodies.
Mr Pearce told AFP: 'It's still got its terrazzo slabs,
and it's still got its pull-out fridge.
'We'll be looking at putting a double bed in one of the rooms
and then we have three slabs and two pull-out fridges which could
be used.'
Pending permission from the council, the morgue motel could
open in 2013 with beds offered via online auction.
Potential visitors might have to get used to their fellow
phantom guests.
Mr Pearce, who lives on the property, told TravelMail:
'We've had some very interesting reactions from the
people who come here. The general
reaction is that people gasp. A few people run out
screaming.
'Certainly over the time I've been here, you think you see
people, you go to look and there's nobody there.'
The antiques dealer has been gradually restoring
six buildings on the historic seven-acre site, which
already features speciality shops in the former asylum
buildings.
There were once plans for the morgue to become an
ice-cream parlour and child minding centre.
The local council are understood to own another seven
acres of the site, which once spanned some 300
acres.
A local heritage committee welcomed the move.
Representative David Llewellyn told ABC radio: 'I guess
the more development that's on the precinct the better it is, in
terms of protection of the site from from vandalism and further
deterioration.'
Mr Pearce, who is thinking about changing the name of the
attraction to the Willow Court Asylum
Motel, quipped: 'The idea is to give an experience in
a morgue before it's too late.'
