Monte Christo Homestead
Monte Christo Homestead is an historic Australian property located in the town of Junee, New South Wales. Constructed by local pioneer Christopher William Crawley in 1885 it is a double story late Victorian manor standing on a hill overlooking the town.
The Crawley family remained in residence until 1948. The house then stood empty under the care of several caretakers until 1963 when it was purchased by Reg and Olive Ryan who restored it to its current condition. It operates as a museum, antique store and tourist attraction. Monte Cristo is claimed to be Australia's most haunted house, with reports of ghostly figures, strange lights, invisible force fields, phantom sounds and animal mutilations. These are attributed to several tragic incidents in the property's past including the murder of a caretaker in 1961 and the imprisonment of a mentally impaired man for many years in the dairy. During the Crawleys' occupation a young child is said to have been fatally dropped down the stairs, a maid to have fallen from the balcony, and a stable boy to have been burnt to death. In fact the ghost of old Mrs. Crawley has been seen many times in her former room and in recent years. It is believed that after William Crawley died in 1910, from a carbuncle on his neck becoming infected by his starched collar, Mrs. Crawley only left the house on two occasions in the remaining 23 years of her life: no wonder her presence still lingers. Then there are the mysterious lights, apparitions. A local Council worker, I will call John R., came up to the homestead on Council business one afternoon and entered Monte Cristo in good spirits, suddenly he backed out and left. I later spoke to him downtown and his explanation was that he didn't like Monte Cristo and would never go up there again - he never has.

Stories told by Reginald Ryan, owner of Monte Cristo Homestead today
"We moved into Monte Cristo on June 3rd 1963 blissfully unaware of the Homestead's often gruesome history, those dubious revelations would be some time off. We had been in residence about three days when we ventured downtown one foggy evening for supplies, on the return trip we turned the bottom corner of the driveway and straightened up towards the house, as we did we saw light streaming out of every door and window; we got such a shock I stopped the car and we sat staring up at the brilliantly illuminated homestead dumfounded. Olive didn't want to continue, felt sure there must have been a burglar up there, I replied to the effect we hadn't been away that long and had better go and investigate. As we drove cautiously through the gateway the lights abruptly disappeared, again Monte Cristo was lost in fog and darkness. We tried desperately to rationalize it, different people suggested the source of light was our car headlights shining onto windows of the house; but there wasn't a single pane of glass in the entire house, electricity hadn't been connected and the only source of light was a kerosene lamp not left lit. Our first experience was eerily replayed 27 years later when our 21 year old son Lawrence was driving home one night the rest of the family were at a ball in Wagga, as he turned into the driveway he discovered all the lights of Monte Cristo ablaze but as he passed through the gates they disappeared again without explanation.

On one of the house tours I was showing a mother and daughter through, having covered the ground floor without any problem I preceded to lead them upstairs and waited for them to catch up in the hall. After waiting a few moments I peered over the banister to see where they were, finding both appearing to have trouble moving and on reaching the landing midway seemed incapable of ascending further. Both said in a worried tone some unseen force was stopping them going up, however once they moved down and away from the steps the problem disappeared. The stairs often cause us problems, especially with children. Little children around the ages of three or four continually cause an uproar on or near the staircase, I've often wondered since learning about the death of a child on them if there's a connection?

Neil, a nephew of my wife Olive, and his girlfriend attended the 1992 Monte Cristo Ball and after it concluded in the early hours of the morning the lass wanted to use the toilet before retiring, however feeling frightened by the dark house asked Neil to escort her. After waiting in the hallway for her Neil proceeded to escort her back towards the stairs which lead to their room, suddenly from the top of the darkened stairs a voice seemed to drift from nowhere, looking up they both saw a young woman dressed in white who said softly twice: "Don't worry, it will be all right" and vanished before their eyes.

The Dining Room
The presence of Mrs Crawley is strongly felt in this room by psychic's, when the ABC brought a group here for the "Big Country" we served them lunch and diner in the room. On several occasions during meals medium Van Blerk got up and left the room without explanation, waited outside a few moments and returned to his seat. He later told us Mrs Crawley had ordered him out of the Dining Room, so for harmony sake he waited until her "presence" had left the room before returning to his seat.

The Breakfast Room
When we moved into Monte Cristo this room served as our kitchen, it was in this room Olive found dead and mutilated kittens.