Ghost tour operator vows to continue legacy after famous Junee ‘haunted house’ closes to public

A professional stuntman who ran ghost tours at a famous ‘’haunted house’’ in Junee has vowed to continue its legacy after it was recently closed to the public in mysterious circumstances.

The double-storey Victorian-style Monte Cristo Homestead had been one of the Riverina’s biggest tourist attractions – initially opening as a museum in the late 1960s and then providing paranormal tours and overnight accommodation packages to visitors from all over the world since 1993.

Lawrence Ryan had run the ghost tours since his father and homestead co-owner Reginald died in July 2014.

Reginald’s wife and Lawrence’s mother, Olive, then became the sole owner of the residence and lived there until she died in November 2024, after which it was announced that the hilltop residence was “closed until further notice”.

Last week, the official Monte Cristo Facebook page posted that “it will never be open again”.

Lawrence told Region he’s unable to provide details on the circumstances of the decision to close the homestead to the general public.

“All I can say is it’s been shut down through no fault of ours,” he said.

“I own the name Monte Cristo, the trademark and everything else to it. I will carry on the legacy of telling the stories of Monte Cristo from the Crawleys [original owners] and the Ryan side, my parents.

“One Homestead Lane now solely belongs to the four daughters [of Reginald and Olive Ryan] and nobody else. It’s not even called Monte Cristo anymore.

“I never owned it in the past or the present. I looked after it for my parents and ran my business through it, which was the ghost tours.”

The Monte Cristo Facebook page now states the homestead is “a privately owned home and private property” and asks that people “do not trespass onto our property”.

Mr Ryan’s businesses named Monte Cristo Homestead and Monte Cristo Ghost Tours remain active and registered with the Federal Government business regulator.

The large hilltop manor house was built by local farmer Christopher Crawley and his wife, Elizabeth, in the 1880s.

Rumours of the house being haunted began when Christopher died suddenly from blood poisoning in 1910.

Reginald and Olive Ryan purchased and moved into the then-derelict house in 1963, restored it to its original state, furnished it with Victorian-era antiques and opened it to the public as a museum a few years later.

Believing the house was haunted by 10 ghosts, Reginald launched paranormal tours in 1993.

The homestead gradually became one of Australia’s most famous “haunted house” tourist attractions and was featured on TV shows such as Getaway.

In 2012, the residence was the theme of the Australian horror movie Muirhead. Director Tanzeal Rahim told media he saw the ghost of Christopher Crawley while shooting the film at the house.

Overnight accommodation packages to stay at Monte Cristo were often sold out weeks in advance.

“It’s a huge loss for Junee. Not being open anymore has cut a big hole in it. There’s still plenty to see in Junee and there’s going to be a lot more to see in Junee, but this has been there before any of it,” Lawrence Ryan said.

“We get emails and mail every day telling us what a loss it is to the town not to be open to the general public anymore.”

Mr Ryan was once called ‘’The daredevil of Monte Cristo’’ by ABC presenter Richard Fidler. He has also worked as a professional stuntman, jumping his motorbike over cars, buses and planes.

Lawrence’s former partner, Silvia Heszterenyiova, maintained a collection of scary dolls at Monte Cristo Homestead until late 2022 when she relocated them to a museum in Belmore Road, Junee. This site closed in June 2023, but she began to showcase her collection at a new doll museum that opened in South-East Queensland last year.

On Sunday (12 January), she announced on Facebook that the doll museum was temporarily closed due to “ongoing issues with the zoning of the building”.

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Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Riverina.