---

Monte Cristo is truly an amazing yet mysterious experience. As currently we are producing a One hour special documentary film on Monte Cristo, i went there with an assistant for a location scout. We made fun of the ghosts because we didn't believe it was haunted, in the first 5 minutes we encountered a problem where my assistants mobile phone was flashing on and of at an amazing speed and shows circled lines on the screen. From that point we respected its spirits and our beliefs changed in a split second!!

Submitted by: Patrick (Added 06/06/04)

We went to Monte Cristo at 7pm, it was a freezing night. Everyone gathered in the souvenir shop and we were all given name tags. From there we took a walk into the ballroom. It was huge, it had the biggest fire place I had ever seen in my life. We made ourselves coffee and sat down at one of the many tables, that was in there.

We met the owners of Monte Cristo, who were Reg and Olive Ryan. Reg put on a video for everyone to watch about their house. They had been on many documentaries, and on Big Country, Australian Story, The Extraordinary and Scream Test.

The video went on a bit long and we were all eager to get inside and explore Monte Cristo. We all went outside and Reg talked to us about the history and the ghosts of Monte Cristo. Whilst, he was speaking about a boy being burnt in the shed, out came a man running around on fire. That was pretty good.

While Dave and I were standing there waiting to go inside, we were standing right in front of the original house. Dave saw a lady in the front window sitting on a chair, looking out at us. He thought nothing more of it until we walked in there. Dave and I walked into the front room first to where the lady should have still been, but to our amazement, there was no lady, and there was no chair in that room.

Next we were split up into groups, Dave and I were in the first group. This group was led by Olive Ryan. When we first entered the house, I felt a little odd. I was curious, just like everyone else there. We were led into the sitting room first of all. In there I felt very flushed and squarmish. Olive went on to explain about all her antiques, which were very beautiful and expensive. Olive refused to speak about the ghosts, so a friend of the family, Roy explained about the ghosts. Roy, told us that the sitting room was a familiar place for a ghost to be. Quite often people would sense a presence in that room, and feel a little sick. Which is what I had felt in there.

We then proceeded to go to the dining room. The odd thing that happened in there was, there was candles everywhere, and they were all lit at the same time, about five minutes prior to all of us walking in. Well one of the candles was completely burnt out and there was wax all over the large table. Roy went on to explain, that the room was a bit scary for the children of the family. Once a child put his hand in a record player cover, the cover is not heavy, and suddenly the boy's hand was stuck, a firm 'ghost' had the cover stuck firmly over the boy's hand. And about five minutes later, it let go and they got the boy's hand out of there.

Next, on to the breakfast room. I didn't feel any thing strange in there, neither did Dave. However, this was the room where Olive walked downstairs one morning and found a cat, with it's eyes out of their sockets, and disemboweled. One lady in that room had to ask her exactly where it happened because she could feel a cold spot. And it did happen where this lady was standing.

After that we went up the stairs, this was a strange experience for me, as I felt as if I suddenly wanted to cry. I felt like I was grieving, but didn't know what for. I soon found out that a maid was at the top of these stairs holding a baby, when she let it fall to it's death to the bottom of the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, we entered the boys room, this is the worst room I have ever been in. As soon as I entered this room, I wanted to walk straight back out. I got suddenly headachy, felt sick to my stomach, felt dizzy and faint. I had to really grab on to Dave, so I wouldn't fall over. Roy said that in this room, people, especially females, feel very sick when they walk into here. People have seen a male presence in this room, suspected to be of the original owner Christopher Crawley. I didn't want to walk out on my own, because I didn't want to stand in the hallway by my self, so I forced myself to stay.

Next we went into the drawing room, this room also made me feel dizzy and faint. Dave wanted to throw up, he felt so ill in that room. I felt something stroke the left hand side of my face and the back of my neck, very eerie.. Roy said that in that room, objects were known to move around on it's own accord. There is a huge tapestry picture in there and would easily take two men to life it. However, it keeps falling down. Also in this room, I saw a large lady sitting on one of the antique chairs, she was sort of transparent. I walked right up to the chair and took photo's. Unfortunately nothing showed up on the film.

Then on to the girls room, nothing really strange in that room, but the wardrobe door kept opening up by it self. I don't know if it was a set up or if a presence kept doing it.

After finishing in the Ryan's private bedroom, we took a walk out on to the balcony. We all got a fright, there was this lady standing at the end of the balcony, she looked pretty scary. Then she jumped off. And she landed on a mattress, lol, it was a setup. But the story goes, that on this balcony a pregnant maid jumped off and killed herself, and you can still see the blood stains at the bottom.

Around the corner we came to the chapel room. In there was a lady sitting on the bed, another fright for most of the people. But it was a prop. In the photo, that I took of this room, there is a very bright orb with blue around it.

After all that Dave and I took a walk around the estate, we came upon the caretakers shed, in here a boy was chained up for over 20 years. No shower or anything ugh. Anyway, also in this room the caretaker was murdered, and on the door you can still read what the murderer wrote when he left. Dave was unusually very drawn to this room. He saw an old man standing in there.

That was the end of our tour. We then went back into the ballroom, for supper and coffee. We went back to our cabin in Junee, after wandering around the grounds for a bit more.

Dave and I can't wait until we go back. We recommend it to anyone who asks us, if they should go and take a look at the most haunted house in Australia,
Monte Cristo.

Submitted by: Nichole Hovenga (Added 14/12/01)