Brisbane: Toowong Cemetery Ghost Tour & Historic Stories

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Duration2h

GroupUp to 26

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

120,000 Graves, One Statue That Moves — Brisbane's Oldest Ghost Tour

You'll walk through Brisbane's largest burial ground with a historian who knows every grave and the real stories behind them, including a statue with a reputation, a governor's tomb, and the graves of murderers and a buried boxer. The tour takes 1.5 hours, covers steep ground, and you leave with a signed book and the kind of local knowledge you can't get anywhere else. Book only if you're comfortable with moderate walking uphill and genuinely interested in the history — this isn't a thrill ride, it's a cemetery.

Step-by-step itinerary

Guided historic ghost tour at Toowong Cemetery

Arrive at Toowong Cemetery
Join 1.5 hour guided ghost tour
Hear stories of moving statue
Learn about deceased governor
Discover tales of black widow
Explore murderers' graves
Visit buried boxer's tomb

The Experience

So you're standing in Toowong Cemetery at dusk, and Jack Sim — the guy who literally wrote the book on this place — is telling you about a statue that apparently shifts position when nobody's looking. Not the kind of thing you expect to hear in Brisbane, but here's the thing: this cemetery holds more than 120,000 people, and the stories attached to them are real. The Mayne Murder, a black widow, a boxer buried in the ground — these aren't invented for effect. They happened, and the graves are still here.

The tour runs about 1.5 hours, and you'll walk up steep hills through the necropolis, so flat-soled enclosed shoes are non-negotiable (they actually turn people away if you show up in thongs or heels). Bring a torch — phone torch apps work fine — because you're moving through a burial ground and the light matters. Jack Sim has been running these ghost tours since 1998, and he's the author of the Ghost Trails series, so when he points out a grave or a crypt and tells you what happened there, it's not theater. It's history that happens to be unsettling.

You get a copy of his book, Ghosts of Toowong Cemetery, included in the price, which normally costs $25. There's also a donation to the Ghost Tours' Haunted Heritage Fund built in. The whole thing is small-group, which means you're not shuffling through with fifty other people — it's intimate in a way that makes the stories land differently when you're actually standing in front of the graves they're about.

What’s included

Your 1.5-hour tour includes entry to Toowong Cemetery, a guided walk with historian Jack Sim through the graves and crypts, a copy of the book Ghosts of Toowong Cemetery by Jack Sim (valued at $25), and a donation to the Ghost Tours' Haunted Heritage Fund. You'll need to bring your own torch and wear flat-soled enclosed shoes.

Good to know

Moderate physical levelPets welcomePublic transport nearbyNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problems

Operated by Historic Australia

Is this one for you?This tour is for people who want to know the actual history of Brisbane's burial ground — the real names, the real crimes, the real graves — rather than a manufactured scare. The steep walking and the 1.5-hour pace mean you're moving at the speed of storytelling, not rushing, which is what makes the detail stick.