Sep 28, 2024
Understanding the underbelly of Brisbane - Very interesting and well researched. Fascinating insights into real crime perpetrated by people in authority when there is so much beat up about "youth crime"
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Aug 2, 2024
Nice tour - Loved this tour that I went on last night in Fortitude Valley. India the guide was amazing, knowledgeable and accommodating to everyone.
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Oct 28, 2023
Recommend even for locals - Great tour! Very informative and interesting look into Brisbane history. As someone who grew up in Brisbane there was a lot of information I learnt from the tour. I would recommend if you’re a local or visiting Brisbane.
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Aug 28, 2023
FORTITUDE VALLEY IS VICE CITY - VERY INTRIGUING TRUE CRIME TOUR - Absolutely amazing tour. Our tour guide, Hannah, was excellent and she gave us an interesting insight and experience into the Valley's True Crime past history. We found it to be like something out of a movie or the TV Underbelly series. Thoroughly recommend any of the Dark Stories Brisbane tours as this company is very professional and efficient at what they do best.
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Jun 14, 2023
Excellent evening activity in the Valley - Great to be a tourist in my own town. Took an interstate mate and we both thought the stories were fascinating with the visuals helping to bring the history to life. Our tour guide knew her stuff and the performance/delivery of the stories was excellent. She included lots of small details that really added humour and interest to the characters. 100% recommend jumping on this tour with guide Jen!
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May 1, 2023
Crime Tour with a Difference - I've done a few historical crime tours in various cities in Australia but this one was something different! Tracing the story of corruption in Qld which culminated in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley in the 1980s, this tour offers a great insight into the corrupt cops, politicians and criminals over various eras. Our host Jen told the stories with colour and enthusiasm but I appreciated that she was also respectful where events required this. The role play was a highlight as were the images of the key players and locations that were used to illustrate the stories. I loved how the stories all tied together and the summary at the end was great! Content of this tour would be suitable for older teens to seniors and the walk around the various locations was easy to manage. Highly recommend this fascinating tour to Brisbane locals (like me) and visitors.
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May 1, 2023
A great way to spend time getting to know Brisbane's underbelly! - A great evening of history of a city I have lived in my whole life. Jen was fabulous. She knew the information and presented with confidence, and humour. Fascinating and intriguing, loved the stories and our guide.
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Feb 5, 2023
Interesting tour about the corrupt and seedy times in Brisbane - This was a fascinating and comprehensive tour about the seedy and corrupt times in Brisbane's history. I loved the stories and our guide delivered them well.
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Aug 11, 2023
the script so lacking a school kid could have written it - i don’t usually leave reviews but this tour was so horrendous that i made an exception. the guide did not care about what she was saying at all, a quick wikipedia search must have gone into research for this tour, that’s how basic the stories told were. some of the things she said weren’t even true - i checked on google myself! utterly lazy, uncaring delivery. i cannot believe i wasted my money on this subpar experience. there are plenty of good tourism experiences in brisbane, but this was a disgraceful money grab. you can tell it’s a company that aren’t even local and don’t actually know what they’re talking about trying to profit off the popularity of true crime. i guess this is what brisbane can expect with the upcoming olympics, companies coming in trying to make a quick and easy buck. save the money, this company so clearly do not give a stuff.
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Apr 6, 2023
disrespectful delivery, inaccurate information and tour guide lacks professionalism and passion for the tour - as someone with a passion for brisbane’s history, i was sorely disappointed by this tour for a number of reasons. it was quite plain that the research put into this tour was minimal. it sounded like a bunch of facts recited from wikipedia. there were a number of incorrect facts as well - some of them were key facts, like the names of criminals involved. i’ve done a lot of research into brisbane’s criminal history but expected a company offering tours like this to have done thorough, extensive research. i thought maybe i’d learn something new but i didn’t. there was no flow to the story telling. the stories the tour guide india told us at each spot we visited were done so in an oversimplified manner that was underwhelming and did not engage me. her folder full of tacky cartoon graphics, bad quality images and handwritten notes that spelled a criminals name wrong that she used throughout the tour was not only unprofessional looking but distracting.
india tried to make a few jokes, but they were at the expense of the victims. these are real people she was talking about - brisbane’s history isn’t something to be exploited for entertainment. she made some joking comment about it being easy for drunk
people to jump from high places - referring to the people who had to escape the burning whiskey au go go building. i just thought the timing was inappropriate considering we were at the spot of one of australia’s worst mass murders. she offered no sympathy to the victims, payed no homage to them whatsoever. it just felt like to her, these were characters in her script. india kept going off topic - making self deprecating comments which was uncomfortable, her political beliefs and even started talking about a girl she knew who did ‘kink work’ which just felt a bit invasive and like an overshare. we wanted to hear more about the crimes and asked plenty of questions, but india made it clear that she didn’t know anything other than the script she learned - and tidbits of information she had heard from people on tours and relayed to us, some of which was incorrect - which my mum pointed out and she seemed adamant it was correct. it’s not hard to fact check key aspects of a notorious crime.
overall, i thought it was a very poor tour in delivery and in research and is a prime example of the issues i have with the popularity of true crime rising in recent years. it’s exploited for entertainment, delivered by people who are so disconnected from the real lives and history they are speaking about.
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