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.'
