Backpacker murder tour banned

Sense and sensibility were clearly thrown out the window when this tour operator decided to profit from running Ivan Milat “Extreme Terror Tours”.

A Goulburn-based ghost tour company, who sold “extreme terror tours” through the Southern Highlands forest where people could see where Milat buried his victims’ bodies, has been banned from operating.

Reportedly, the first tour scheduled for 27 July has been sold out at $150 per person, and only 6 places remain for a following two tours.

The tours which were to run from 6pm to 3am has been described as “utterly outrageous and terrible” and were expected to take guests through the forest where backpackers were brutally killed.

The NSW government has since blocked them from proceeding; with Premier Mike Baird saying the tour company needed a permit to operate in the state forest.

“I have been advised that they haven’t yet sought a permit, but if they do, they won’t be getting one,” he told reporters.

“If they are going to operate illegally then they will face the full force of the law.

“It’s not only in bad taste, it’s just terrible … horrendous.”

The NSW Minister for Lands and Water, Niall Blair, also said he would ensure the tours would not proceed.

“Tours like this in the Belanglo State Forest are sick and disrespectful,” Blair told Fairfax.

“I will be making sure even if this business does try to apply for a permit, these tours will not be going ahead.”

Serial killer Ivan Milat is serving life behind bars for the murder of seven backpackers, whose bodies were found in the Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s.

Milan’s great nephew Matthew was also jailed for murdering a teenager in the forest in 2010.

The Extreme Terror Tours website, run by Louise Edwards who also operates Goulburn Ghost Tours, has since been removed and a Facebook page has also been taken down.

Prior to the website going offline, it’s been reported by Pedestrian to have stated:

“Come with trained and experienced Paranormal Investigators to Belanglo State Forrest where horrific crimes have been committed and bodies have been found.”
“Belangalo State Forrest is the old stomping ground of Ivan Milat, convicted serial murderer.
“Learn about his crimes and use paranormal techniques to help solve the baffling murder of Angel, believed to be murdered AFTER Ivan Milat was jailed!”

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Latest comments

Richie Kenzie says:
July 15, 2015 at 3:08 pm
It’s interesting the comments so far making comparisons to other sites and accusing the government of being totalitarian in wanting to stamp these sort of tours out. Personally I think this kind of thing is in extremely poor taste. In regards to the comparisons, the Killing Fields in Cambodia and Auschwitz in Poland (where I’ve visited) are truly morose sites and visitors, generally, are there to get a sense of some of history’s darkest chapters and to understand how they could have taken place. They are places of remembrance and are very moving. Jack the Ripper Tours, yes, ok that’s a closer comparison, but those grisly events took place over a century ago, and the tours are as much a look at late 19th century East End London as they are focused on the murders, as I understand.
Another commenter mentions Port Arthur, I presume referencing convict history and privation, and not the 1996 massacre. I think this current Milat/Belanglo tour business is akin to the idea of people traipsing around Port Arthur and poking around the site where 35 people were killed in horrific circumstances. I know from my visit to Port Arthur a few years back that it’s essentially taboo to ask locals about the massacre and rightly so. There would be national outrage if someone proposed tours there and the only difference between Port Arthur and Milat/Belanglo is the Belanglo killings mostly took place in isolation.
Additionally, many of Milat’s victims’ families are still very much alive and I think would be mortified at the idea of paying customers inspecting the spots where their loved ones met a terrifying end. People are not booking on these tours for a sense of history or remembrance, it’s pure ghoulishness.
For what it’s worth, I completely understand that people are fascinated by grisly crimes – it’s why we watch CSI and read James Ellroy books, but this business… It’s beyond the pale.
Richie Kenzie, Editor, Travel Weekly
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Kuz Kuzela says:
July 15, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Better shut down the tourist sites like Port Arthur, Old Melbourne Jail, the Eureka Stockade and the Sydney Ghost Tour that visits sites of murders and executions!
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Ben Alcock says:
July 15, 2015 at 12:38 pm
Is it any worse than a Jack the Ripper tour?
Or a visit to the Killing Fields in Cambodia?
What about Auschwitz?
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AUSSIEtraveller says:
July 15, 2015 at 12:35 pm
no one can ban a tour company. They can only stop people running a tour thru a state forest. Maybe they take people to edge of state forest & say, tour ends here, now it’s private.
Who does this govt think they are ? Hitler ?
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