THE GROUNDS

The Knot Garden

On the southern aspect of Monte Cristo is the Knot Garden (planted in 1992), where intricate hedge rows form an elegant image of a tied knot when viewed from an elevated position. It is flanked on the eastern side by a long row of trees and shrubs which have been there many years, providing a shady place to rest or while away a summers day. Over the years many people have independently reported seeing children clad in old fashion sailor suits playing in the vicinity of the garden, however when their clothing strikes them as odd and take another look only a few seconds later the phantom children are gone.

Many locals and visitors have sighted ghostly children in various parts of the homestead, especially children who are never alarmed by their presence.

Local mother, Pam Trim, recalled how her children once played in the grounds of Monte Cristo during the early 1990's and told her how a young boy in a sailor suit sat on a tree branch in the garden and watched them play.

Not realizing he was a ghost the children sang out for him to climb down and play with them, but the moment they addressed the boy he vanished before their eyes.

The ghostly boy, sometimes accompanied by a young girl also in a sailor suit, are regularly sighted inexplicably in or near this tree and local children saw them so often they ignored their presence and played on obliviously.

Records show several children, some newborns, died at Monte Cristo in tragic ways in the 19th century, when child mortality was high in rural areas.

THE COACH HOUSE AND STABLES

Phantom in the Stables

Another boarder of ours, Ian, was a railways employee who kept and trained horses when not on duty, when he went away on holidays a friend would feed them and take care of the stables until he returned.

One day he entered a stall to feed a horse and noticed the door starting to swing shut, he bolted over to try and prevent it closing. He later swore he could hear someone outside struggling against him, breathing heavy trying to force the door shut, but when he peered out through the ventilation hole there was nobody outside - he refused to help again.

The Old Fernery

A Fernery once stood on the northern aspect of Monty Cristo, a wooden lattice structure built in 1886 it fell to ruins during the 1950's at the hands of time and battering by the harsh elements, but its memory endures.

Over the years many visitors and those gifted with psychic abilities have sensed something dreadful, perhaps even a murder, occurred on the spot it once occupied. Although they had no idea a Fernery once existed and no remnants remain to set that location apart from the rest of the area in the shadow of the great house.

A self professed medium came to us one day and all through the house kept condemning the homestead as evil and dangerous, at the conclusion of his tour I was walking just ahead to show him the Dairy, when I heard a thump and groan coming from behind. I turned to find the man laying dazed on the ground, he said something hit him on the forehead with immense force, although he bore no marks of violence he was clearly terrified and left immediately. Staff at the hotel he was staying in later said he spent some time scrubbing his hands, after which tore up all the literature on Monte Cristo and left town.

Legendary lost sovereigns

Back in 1898 Monte Cristo's owner, Christopher Crawley, sold the large Loftus Hotel in Junee for £10.000 - an immense sum in those days - and not trusting banks, cheques or paper money he insisted payment be made in gold sovereigns.

So the buyer, Mrs O'Donnald, had to deliver half a sugar bag full of the heavy coins, which Mr. Crawley poured onto the dining table and duly counted before signing the papers transferring ownership of the hotel over to Mrs O'Donnald.

No one knows what became of the sovereigns, no existing records detail their deposit in local banks and many historians believe they were buried somewhere on the property, which was a common practice in those days.

The house being the most obvious place a thief would look vegetable gardens, under wood piles and greenhouse floors became popular areas to hide money. Away from nosy servants and in a location no one would think it odd to see someone lingering or digging about, however if its existence or location were kept a guarded secret and the depositor were to die it could be lost forever.

Monte Cristo's original vegetable garden is located under todays' Knot Garden, if the gold coins were stashed outside they could also have been buried under the old Fernery. The most likely location in my view as unlike the vegetable garden where farm laborers could stumble over the secret, the Fernery was a more private place.

The legend of the lost sovereigns was almost the death of Monte Cristo, the vandalism which virtually destroyed the homestead was largely inflicted by local treasure hunters who left no stone unturned in their search - although they appear to have been too lazy to dig up the old vegetable patch or look in the Fernery and confined their energies to smashing the interiors of the house.

ANIMALS AT MONTE CRISTO

Cursed Kittens It was about three years before we could keep a pet, not in, but around the Homestead. The first cat that actually stayed around the house was one I rescued after hearing it crying in one of the paddocks behind the Homestead, it had been caught in a rabbit trap set by one some local boys. On releasing it, I calmed it down and took it up to the homestead to bandage it's injured paw, it acted very agitated while near the house and as soon as I released it, it duly limped off without a purr of thanks.

Although it wouldn't come near the homestead the children would as children do, go out and feed it so slowly it made friends with them.

After a couple of months the cat had a litter of kittens down in one of the sheds and the children delighted in visiting them, to our dismay each of these kittens at a few months old, would froth at the mouth and die, that happened countless times until one finally survived for about 5 months.

Our new found confidence was shattered one morning when Olive made a frightening and unnerving discovery, coming down to start breakfast she found the last surviving kitten in the kitchen with its eyes gouged out and it's stomach torn open, this was made more frightening y the fact the house was completely locked from the inside and no point of entry could be found.

Chickens Fall Foul of Unseen Forces Having 2 ½ acres around the Homestead we decided to acquire some poultry and set to work making a small hen house for them, however it seemed doomed to failure. After a few days in residence they started dying one by one, until they had all died. Not to be outdone we purchased more and I went to the trouble of surrounding the hen house in a wire netting fence, top and all, plus a gate with a lock on it.

All seemed to go well for two or three days, then one morning on passing the yard I found all the chicken and our pet Parrot (I had put him in there for safety) with their necks rung in the center of the coup, the wire fence was intact and lock not been tampered with.

The Silenced Song Birds

Deborah, our eldest daughter, was 16 when her boyfriend gave her two little finches as a birthday gift. She kept them in a little cage in her bedroom on the second floor, delighting in watering, feeding and playing with them.

One day she came home for lunch finding them quite chirpy and went downstairs to get fresh water for them, on her return a couple of minutes later she found them both laying stone dead on the cage floor.

Accompanied by her boyfriend she took both birds back to the place of purchase, no answer could be found as to how or why the healthy young finches had died. Phantom Piano Friends Sally and Rod Austin were looking after Monte Cristo for us while we were in Sydney on business some years ago, they were awoken the first night by someone downstairs playing the piano at 2AM. However there was no one else in the house, so quietly they made their way down to the ground floor expecting to find a burglar or who knows what. But taking their first step off the stairs the music stopped and they found the house in total darkness, no one within but them.

Possession at Monte Cristo

One day a family from Sydney arrived at Monte Cristo, as they pulled up in the parking lot the husband complained of a dreadful sensation, he felt as if something unseen had attached itself to his chest and clutched him tightly.

After resting in the car for a few moments he recovered and followed his family into the house and took part in the tour, on completion he said he still felt unwell and was eager to leave. On returning to Sydney he felt whatever had attached itself to him at Monte Cristo was still with him, believing himself possessed he approached his family physician who recommended seeing his parish priest to discuss the merits of exorcism.

For several weeks the condition persisted and his wife worried for his sanity, however one night the pain ceased and the being, or whatever it was, left him. It floated mist like across the room and disappeared, seemed to fade away. His wife saw it too but couldn't discern what exactly what it was, some believe a spirit known as an Elemental.

The aftermath of this was intensive therapy and he's quite normal now, although both vow never to return to Monte Cristo again.

Murder at Monte Cristo?

On Friday the 13th a few years back local radio station 2WG rang us to talk about strange happenings, I recounted a few and was amazed by the number of people who rang us at Monte Cristo with their experiences, these people were among the majority who were reticent to relate what had happened to them for fear of public criticism.

One elderly lady said as a child, on driving past "Monte" in a sulky with her father, she was told that a girl had been murdered up there, she said she would never forget it, she had been around eight years old at the time, so it would have been the early 1900's.

Many psychic's have independently stated they felt a young girl was murdered in the Old Homestead, sensing her blood dripping body being carried across the back paddock. However there are no records to verify this, the Crawley's being as wealthy and powerful as they were it's doubtful local authorities would have given them too much trouble.