Mansfield: haunted Alzburg Resort, 1800s-built nunnery turned resort, attracts a flurry of interest

Alzburg Resort at 39 Malcolm St, Mansfield, has many stories about its resident ghosts. Inset picture: iStock.

A haunted nineteenth-century convent turned long-running accommodation and ski equipment hire business in Victoria’s High Country has slalomed onto the market with an $11m price tag.

Set on 1.43ha, the Alzburg Resort at 39 Malcolm St, Mansfield, is a popular base for people wanting to visit Lake Eildon and Mt Buller.

The resort’s own website discloses its surprising and colouful history, starting in the 1880s, when a group of Irish settlers including Bridget Kennedy, the widow of Sergeant Michael Kennedy who was shot by bushranger Ned Kelly at Stringybark Creek in 1878, requested nuns for a local school to provide the Mansfield district’s children with a Catholic education.

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A convent and school opened in 1891.

In the 1970s the nuns moved to a new site after the school closed and Melbourne’s German Catholic community purchased the property, naming it Pax Montis.

They invited Australia’s then-largest ski tour operator, Allaround Travel owner Pasquale Bono, to run coach tours to Pax Montis.

Mr Bono soon purchased former convent and renamed it Alzburg, developing it into a four-star resort.

CBRE’s senior director – hotels, Scott Callow, said Mr Bono had continued to expand the operation across the following decades to incorporate 14,280sq m of total floor space.

The stained-glass windows from the original chapel were removed and relocated to the reception area, with copies were made for the doors.

A view of the pool and gardens.

During ski season, the resort offers tours to Mt Buller. Picture: Visit Victoria.

Nowadays, Alzburg’s 44 rooms include suites, self-contained apartments, penthouses – some in the original convent building – and hotel spa rooms capable of holding up to 220 guests.

There’s also a swimming pool, sauna, tennis courts, ski rental shop, conference facilities and gift shop.

Alzburg’s function space, Banjo’s, retains historic leadlight windows and other period features.

Mr Callow said he was in discussions with investors, including owners of multiple hotels, who have expressed interest in the resort.

“It’s one of the largest privately-owned landholdings in the central township of Mansfield,” Mr Callow said.

“The area is a year-round playground for people these days, not just during the ski season, it’s a popular wine district and people visit to go mountain biking, hiking, horseriding and fishing.”

A heated pool has been installed at the former convent.

If you need gloves, beanies or cold weather clothing, be sure to drop in.

After 38 years, Mr Bono is still very much involved in the business which his son and a management team run day-to-day.

And while Mr Callow said he doesn’t know anything about Alzburg’s ghosts, across the years many employees and visitors have reported unusual goings on detailed on the resort’s website.

They include a housekeeper who entered a vacant room to find a mysterious woman at a desk who was no longer there when a colleague returned, with the spectre dubbed “The Sitting Lady”.

Elsewhere, body indents appear on freshly-made beds and once a night manager was woken by an unknown young boy holding a damaged glass, who has since been dubbed “The Boy with the Broken Glass”.

Stained-glass windows remain in some of the rooms.

The resort’s resident ghosts have been seen by multiple workers. Picture: iStock.

The boy said guests in his room had broken the glass and also damaged a table.

The night manager told the boy to go back to bed and that she would charge the guests for any damage, only for a co-worker to find broken glass and a damaged table in a room the next day – while the night manager also found glass under her bed.

In the games room, staff members and guests have heard a child’s voice ask about “the music machine” – likely meaning the jukebox.

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