Visiting Monte Cristo Homestead had been on my paranormal bucket list for a few years now, so obviously we were very much looking forward to the overnight stay at what has been claimed to be the most haunted house in Australia.
We, as in my mum and my sisters, arrived at about 3.30pm on the Saturday afternoon and were greeted by the host who escorted us into the homestead. We entered through a side servant style door and were immediately in a room which had been set up for dinner. From here, we were shown upstairs to the sleeping quarters. At the top of the stairs was a landing with six bedrooms leading off to the left and to the right, was a small hallway with four ensuite style powder rooms. Each with a shower, toilet and basin. Our room had a double bed, single bed and a set of bunks with glaring floral wallpaper.
Once we were settled, we had about two hours to explore the grounds and outbuildings before dinner. The grounds were unkept and overgrown, but showed small glimpses of what grandeur may once have been. At the front of the homestead was a non-working fountain and some steps down to ornate statues, which were broken and covered in moss. You could only imagine what they must have once looked like. The homestead was perched on a hill, but with residential properties developed right up to the fence line and an overgrown garden, you lost sense of the homestead being perched high on a hill looking down to the town below.
We then wandered to the back of the homestead where there were a number of outbuilding. The servants quarters, which were not unlike any other early 1900's quarters. The four rooms, comprising a sitting room, two bedrooms and the kitchen, were full of historic bric a brac. There was a ballroom, a dairy outbuilding and some stables. The ballroom was a large hall style building which was built by the second owner Reg Ryan. It was rather modern and resembled a community scout hall with remnants of halloween decorations. The stables were fully stocked with horse carriages, that were so packed in, you could not move between them to enjoy the majestic details of the workmanship. The dairy outbuilding was a small room with some historical artefacts. I was rather excited about investigating both the stables and the dairy later that night, as we had read many stories of sightings in these two buildings.
After about one hour, we moved upstairs to rest for the hour before dinner.
During dinner, the host shared stories of the history of the homestead, the Crawleys; the death of the youngest child Magdalena, the death of the maid who fell from the balcony, Mr Crawley, his mistresses, his twenty children (of which ten were born by servants illegitimately) and of course Mrs Elizabeth Crawley, who was part aboriginal. The host then shared his story of the second owners, his parents. There was a lot of oversharing of the family disputes in regards to his father's will and the dysfunction which had resulted. To be honest, at times I questioned whether he should be sharing this information about his sisters, but it was all very interesting and really set the scene for our ghost investigation.
But for those that know me, I absolutely hate it when a host tells me how I should be feeling or what others have felt on tours. I do not want to know that people claimed to have their legs touched, or their jewellery taken or that they felt nauseous. I want to experience things for myself and I don't want to be told what I should be experiencing. I don't know whether it is because, if it doesn't happen, I will be bitterly disappointed, or because I don't like people being manipulated to feel a certain way or if I don't like the theatre and acting. I can't help but think, why are they trying so hard to convince us something happened .... just let it happen, if it is so damn good - it will happen!
But no, the host talked and talked and talked. He talked non-stop about all these experiences that others had claimed to have had. It actually got quite monotonous.
Eventually the time came to enter the homestead. Everyone was very excited. We were led down to the visitors gift shop where we were left to see a twenty minute video. Most of the video was a repeat of what the host had just shared at dinner. There were segments of where paranormal investigators had been in the homestead and they shared sound recording evidence of a choir singing in the ballroom. It was very interesting and I was looking forward to the investigation in this ballroom.
The homestead was essentially seven rooms. Downstairs was a sitting room, library and dining room and upstairs there were three bedrooms and a drawing room. The homestead was well lit with candles and battery operated candelabras. In each room, the host talked and talked and talked and TALKED! Often repeating the stories he had just shared at dinner and often making the same jokes. If I had heard him say, "we had a guest on tour who said they were a medium, and I said, well I am a large" one more time........"sigh". In each room he talked about the experiences others had had in the room or what others had claimed to have happened. There was no time to sit there in silence, in the dark, to listen, to feel, to sense, or just simply to take anything in. The whole time we were in the homestead, the host just kept talking and talking. Yes, he was very knowledgeable and the history is amazing, but it would have been so much better to do the history tour from 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm, and then have the night to retrace your steps, but as an investigation. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting historically, but as a ghost tour, it was excruciatingly boring.
Upstairs in the "boys room", the host's bedroom from his birth until the age of 13 and the room in which the first owner, Mr Crawley, had died, was claimed to be one of the most active. Yet I felt nothing. The host talked about mediums who had been through the homestead, and what they had felt and shared. We went out onto the balcony and into a small chapel bedroom on the first floor and then down some outside stairs to the the front of the homestead, nothing. From here, we walked around to the back of the homestead. It was at this point, the host states that he was going home to open up the door for something. He left us all standing there and told us that this lady would take us to the outbuildings and he would be back shortly. There were sixteen of us. At this point, approximately eight guests returned to the dining area and didn't even bother with the outbuildings. The lady was just standing there and everyone was off doing their own thing. So my group (the four of us) moved off to the dairy outbuilding. This building was claimed to have had a young boy, aged 8, who had been hit by a tree which resulted in brain damage. His mother chained him to the dairy for 30 - 40 years. He was chained there all day and night to stop him running away or hurting himself. Claims were made that his spirit was strong there and often the chain could be heard and he would growl and bark at people. It was dark.... it was the first dark spot we had been in all night. It was perfect for an investigation, so I set up my own EMF devices and sat with my sister quietly in the building. Talking and seeing if anything would like to come forward and communicate with us that evening. Nothing.
We then moved to the stables. Nothing.
From the stables we moved onto the ballroom which was fully lit up. By this time, the host had returned. At the entrance to the ballroom was the host, the lady, me and my sister and one other couple. I'm assuming my mother, younger sister and the other two guests had gone back to the dining room to join the others. I asked the host if we could turn off the lights and do an investigation, given that this was the space in which the paranormal investigators had recorded a choir singing. No, was his response. Shocked, thinking....this is a ghost tour in the acclaimed most haunted house in Australia and you showed us a video claiming investigators had recordings of a choir, but I could not turn off the lights????
So, I walked in on my own, walked around, put the EMF device down and waited for a a while. Nothing.
We then all returned back to the dining area for dessert and where the host continued to talk. He then told us that the plan was that another person was going to do an investigation with some gadgets in the outbuildings, but she was so overwhelmed with emotion that she went home. He also stated that he would not be there in the morning as he was going to the Wagga Wagga Swap meet the following day. As a guest, this made me feel like I was unimportant, as he had already left the tour to attend to something else only a half hour before. I said that I was happy to go do the paranormal investigation as I had brought some equipment with me and his response was no - again!
The host then shared that often things do not happen on the tours at night, and guests had claimed many experiences had happened when they went up to sleep in the rooms which were located in the most active part of the property. He claimed that many people do not last the night and leave. He went through what to do if we were so overwhelmed and wanted to leave the homestead. There were twelve of us sleeping over. As soon as dessert was finished, nearly all the guests left and went upstairs. No one talked, no one shared.... because there was nothing to share!
By about midnight all the guests had gone up to their rooms. I climbed into my bed only to find I had no blankets. So at 12.30 am I began searching cupboards on the landing to find a blanket. I found one. I put the electric blanket on high and went to sleep. For me, a very uneventful and disappointing evening.
I woke at about 2.30 am and decided to take my equipment out to the landing between the powder rooms, which had a walkthrough to the main homestead. There was a heavy velvet curtain separating the two areas. I set up and sat there doing an investigation for about twenty minutes. I then went downstairs and tried there - nothing! So, off to be again I went.
At 8.00 am, I woke and went downstairs and into the homestead to walk around with my EMF device on my own, in the quiet, to see if I could sense, feel, see or hear anything. I had one EMF reading at the entrance to the drawing room, but I strongly sensed in was residual energy. There was no interaction and it did not move.
At 8.30 am, we had breakfast and all twelve guests were in attendance. All of them stated they had a good night's sleep, that was uneventful. They almost seemed disappointed. By 9.00 am nearly all of the guests, except us and one couple, had left. This in itself said a lot, as the host had said the night before, that after breakfast you could go through the homestead again for as long as you liked, as many spirits were active during the day.
It was at this time, Olive Ryan, the 88 year old widow of Reg Ryan, the second owner, came out to talk with us. Olive had made us dinner the night before and breakfast in the morning. This was by far my highlight of the weekend. She spoke candidly about her life and how her husband had restored the property. Interestingly, her version of the family dysfunction and that of the host were quite different.
In conclusion, I feel, that maybe, just maybe, once upon a time, spirits may have haunted this homestead, but now, it is a homestead that is full of period style furniture and antiques. It is nice to see, but no ghost or paranormal activity was detected. It was almost like a 3-star bed and breakfast with a historical tour of a period style homestead tacked on. So if that is what you want, this was great, but if you want a ghost adventure, then this was not the place. We definitely enjoyed the weekend, it was very educational and interesting and we all agreed that it has lots of potential to improve, but much work is needed. Would I go again......not at this stage.
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