The Monte Cristo Homestead.
There’s something about the lovely late Victorian style homestead perched on a hill overlooking the town of Junee, New South Wales, Australia that speaks to me. With its red brick facade and green iron lattice work along the first and second story verandas, it just looks like a happy place. A little too rectangular and symmetrical maybe- it’s lacking fancy widow walks and big bay windows, but it’s just so inviting-looking that I can imagine strolling up the walkway, past the stone statues of angels and around the fountain filled with lily pads, to climb the five shallow steps to the front door.
Once inside, I bet I’d want to stay for a good long time.
Inside, the entire homestead is decorated in late Victorian era furniture and wallpapered in floral prints. The doll room containing thousands of dolls might be a little unsettling for some people- but since I don't really have a doll phobia, it wouldn’t bother me. At least, I don’t think it would.
It’s possible that my gut feeling about the 1885 manor would change entirely once the sun went down, because for decades, the Monte Cristo Homestead has been considered to be the most haunted house in all of Australia.
And based on the chilling and tragic stories swirling around the alleged 10 different spirits who reside within its walls, it’s no wonder.
The trouble with the Monte Cristo Homestead is that it’s pretty difficult to research the historical accuracy of some of these stories- and so they continue to be passed on, regardless of whether they are the right stories or not.
But it’s near impossible to doubt any of the tales Olive Ryan has to tell about her experiences at the Monte Cristo Homestead, since she’s lived in the grand house since 1963 - especially since she and her husband Reginald worked painstakingly for years to restore the once abandoned and derelict home back to its former glory.
The very first time she and her husband drove up to the house after purchasing it, the couple were welcomed by the beautiful sight of the entire manor lit up - as if an entire community waited inside to greet them with anticipation. But as the couple reached the front door, every light went out. Strange, yes- but even stranger, when they remembered that there wasn’t any working electricity yet.
As the Ryan's restored the house and eventually welcomed guests, they discovered quite a few of them asleep in their car the next morning because their guests just couldn’t stand another minute in the house- they were that unnerved by the ghostly happenings.
According to the official Monte Cristo Homestead website, montecristodoc.com, Christopher William Crawley was born in Sydney, Australia in 1841. Always interested in farming, he purchased two parcels of land on a hill above Junee and married Elizabeth Carr in 1860. Elizabeth was a Wiradjuri woman, which is the largest aboriginal group in Australia. She passed as white in order to be accepted by society.
Although the Crawley’s struggled financially for quite a while, they first lived in a slab house on the property and then upgraded to a brick cottage. In 1878, Christopher obtained a hotel license soon after the Great Southern Railway Line opened in Junee. He soon owned the Railway Hotel, a very lucrative establishment and became one of the wealthiest men in town.
He was so wealthy that he retired rather early in life and by 1884 his Monte Cristo Homestead was under construction. Afterall, he needed a home befitting his social status for himself, Elizabeth, and their seven children. Their original brick cottage was converted into servants quarters for their numerous servants and the slab house became the Crawley family’s stables.
The Homestead was built out of sandstock bricks that were fired on-site (sandstock is basically clay bricks that are coated with sand), The first floor walls are 18 inches thick and the upper floor is 9 inches thick- and they were made so well that even to this day, not a single crack has ever shown in the structure. Inside, the ceilings are 12 feet high, built out of Cyprus pine, lathe and plaster.
Once their homestead was built, the Crawleys threw balls for their genteel friends and hosted tennis matches and golf tournaments on the golf course- the very first one in that region.
The Crawley sisters- Lillian, Lydia, Florence, and Angela (who went by the nickname Pidge) were multi-talented- they each played an instrument and excelled in art. Lillian became an accomplished pianist and composer.
Their mother, Elizabeth, liked to wear a black lace dress with a beaded collar and matching cap and was often compared to Queen Victoria, in the way she carried herself. She also allegedly ruled her home with an iron fist- which trickled down to the servants, who often told horrendous stories about the way they were treated by both the mistress of the house and Christopher.
Christopher passed away on December 14, 1910 and most historical accounts of Elizabeth after his death claim that she only left the Homestead twice after his passing. For 23 years she stayed up on the hill, converting an upper floor storage room into her own personal chapel. She passed away at age 92 in 1933.
Crawley family members continued to live in the house until 1948, but by that time it had fallen into some disrepair and most of the furniture had to be sold off. It sat abandoned for over a decade.
Then, in 1963, the Monte Cristo Homestead saw a complete rebirth and revival when Olive and Reginald Ryan purchased it for a thousand pounds. Together, the couple restored it, including the servants quarters, dairy barn, stables, and ballroom- using as many original furnishings and fixtures as they could get their hands on.
To fund their restoration project and support his family at the same time, Reginald worked as a tailor, waiter, day laborer and door-to-door salesman until he eventually became an antiques dealer. His Monte Cristo Antiques became an Internationally known business- especially since the Homestead was the perfect showcase for what they’d acquired.
By 1986, the Ryan's stopped dealing in antiques and opened the Homestead as a museum, taking visitors on tours themselves. All five of their children took part in presenting tours.
Today, Olive Ryan still lives at the Monte Cristo Homestead with her eldest son, Lawrence, a motorcycle stuntman and world record holder. When Lawrence isn’t jumping crop planes or burning vehicles on his motorcycle, he runs ghost tours at the haunted house he grew up in.
There seem to be as many chilling and awful stories about the Crawley's time at the homestead as there are alleged ghosts.
Here are a few according to Traces magazine:
A maid fell to her death from the second story balcony. There is a permanent bleach stain where her blood was scrubbed away. She was rumored to have been carrying Mr. Crawley’s child.
The Crawley’s granddaughter, Ethel, died at just 10 months old in 1917 when her nanny accidentally dropped her down the stairs.
Morris, a stable boy, was too sick to work one day. Mr. Crawley, believing the boy to be faking it, lit his straw mattress on fire to rouse him out of bed. The boy, who was not faking it, died in the inferno.
Another little boy, Harold, was the son of Mr. Crawley and a second maid. Harold was involved in a carriage accident that permanently disabled him. He spent most of his life chained in the stable (some sources say he was chained to his mother’s bed) until he was discovered by authorities and taken to an asylum.
And then there’s the story of Jack Simpson- a supposed caretaker of the Monte Cristo Homestead. The story goes that one day in 1961, Mr. Simpson responded to a knock at the front door. A young man, who allegedly watched the movie “Psycho” three times in a row earlier that day. Pulled out a gun and shot Simpson. This young man then carved “Die Jack, ha, ha!” into the shed door.
Now, I spent a while looking for some documentation on this one, as it’s relatively recent. I couldn’t find anything except more sites retelling the story and some reddit forum threads where people tried to either prove or debunk it (they were unable to find anything, either.)
So, yeah- like I said, they’re horrible stories -and almost impossible to verify.
Many of the sites dedicated to discussing the ghosts at the Monte Cristo seem to rely on these legends or lore - which is all I can really call them since I couldn’t find any evidence that they’re true. I’m not saying they aren’t- just that I couldn't find any documentation.
Of the ten spirits who are said to haunt the Monte Cristo mansion, the most prominent is Elizabeth Crawley.
If Elizabeth takes a dislike to anyone who comes into the house, she’s not shy about letting them know that she wants them out. First, she’s known to cause the temperature to drop immediately around that person until they feel the coldness in their bones. The lights may turn on or off. Mists might materialize. Disembodied voices might whisper in their ears.
There are children’s spirits at the Monte Cristo - guests have felt a small hand slip into theirs as they walk up or down the main staircase. Other guests have claimed to feel a hand pushing them in the lower back, and young visitors to the house often become agitated while on the staircase. Many websites attribute these feelings to the ghost of Ethel Crawley, the infant who died when her maid accidentally dropped her on the stairs.
But Harold, the little boy who was allegedly kept in the stables after his horrible accident, is often cited as causing the sound of rattling chains.
People have seen the apparition of the maid who took her own life out on the second floor balcony, pacing back and forth.
Morris, the stable boy, is said to be the cause of the disembodied screams people have heard coming from the coach house.
I almost didn’t mention these accounts, but they’re so prevalent online that I figured I should. But even if we take these accounts with a grain of salt,
Olive and Lawrence Ryan’s experiences in the house speak volumes- and as the everyday caretakers of the home for the last 60 years, they are the most credible, at least to me.
Mrs. Ryan has shared her experiences with several media outlets, which I was able to find online.
First, there’s the experience Olive and Reginald had on the very first night they moved in- when all of the lights were on inside the house, despite a lack of electricity.
And then there are the times that Olive has heard her name called but can’t find anyone nearby who called for her. Or the times she heard her name called but she was completely alone in the house.
There were numerous times when she was alone and heard someone walking out on the balcony- only to look and confirm that there wasn’t anybody there.
She told The Project tv show back in 2015 that she’s felt a hand on her shoulder at least once- who she believed was Elizabeth Crawley trying to communicate with her.
Her son, Lawrence (he’s the motorcycle stunt man) has had more than his share of experiences as well, since as far back as his childhood.
He and his siblings have all seen figures in period clothing wandering in the house and they've all felt ice cold hands touch them.
But the most horrifying story he’s told by far is about the family cat. In an interview he did with Escapes magazine, Lawrence explained why none of the 14 cats who live on the property ever come into the house. He said, quote, “We've never really been able to keep animals in the house - ever since mum came downstairs one morning and found the family cat on the kitchen floor, skinned and disemboweled with its eyes gouged out. Someone suggested that another wild animal could have done that ... but all the doors were closed and locked."
Lawrence and his mother have never shied away from telling the many tales about their home- they’ve embraced the Crawley Family lore and are happy to pass it along - Lawrence says that it’s the best way he can rationalize why his childhood home is so haunted.
Since opening up some of the rooms as a bed and breakfast, Lawrence said that even guests are experiencing things- like something they can’t see touching their feet in the middle of the night or feeling an uncomfortable pressure in their chests as though someone is leaning or sitting on them. Some have seen apparitions standing at the foot of their bed, staring at them. Some have reported people walking back and forth in the hallway outside their room, stopping to jiggle their door handle as though they are trying to come in (and of course when they check, there’s no one there). And there’s also numerous reports of disembodied voices.
Some of these guests are the ones who give up and go sleep in their cars rather than try and make it through a night inside the house. Some just leave the property completely.
I found a great article in Traveler magazine from 2020, titled “Monte Cristo Homestead, Junee, NSW: A night at Australia's most haunted house” by Rob McFarland. He paid a visit to the Monte Cristo Homestead and when he asked Lawrence about the hauntings, Lawrence told him “The spirits tend to stay away from the nervous Nellies. It's the skeptics who get the most activity."
McFarland did his best to appease the spirits (thanking them for most of his sleepless night for allowing him to stay in their home. The following morning, as he was leaving, he asked Lawrence about the rather large dog he’d seen running out of the house before he went to bed.
Lawrence looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face and said he didn’t know what dog he was talking about- since they don’t have a dog.
The Monte Cristo Homestead has rightfully earned its title as Most Haunted House in Australia, I think.
It’s quite possible that the lore is true - it would certainly explain the hauntings. But even if it’s not- even if the stories are wrong, there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s paranormal activity there.
The Hat Man
For thousands of years, people all over the world have been experiencing a frightening phenomenon.
As they lay awake in their darkened bedrooms, something seems to loom out of the shadows. Maybe it stands in their open bedroom doorway, perfectly still, staring intently at the person in bed .
Maybe the figure emerges from the corner where two walls meet, blacker than dark itself - it’s a man, wearing some sort of long coat. He has no discernible features - although sometimes people describe him as having terrifying glowing red eyes And he wears a hat - often a fedora - although before the invention of the fedora, his hat style varied.
He’s reported to be tall, six feet at they very least and even more often people say he’s about 8–10 feet tall, forcing him to hunch over while standing.
Pinned to their beds in fear, people watch as This Shadow Figure, known as the Hat Man, separates from the wall and moves towards them, often pausing right next to their bed.
Paralyzed, as if literally frozen from the inside out, the person can’t do anything except blink.
They can’t move, they can’t scream they're helpless and in fear as to what lays in store for them next.
The Hat Man then leans over them, staring down at them with a face they can’t see. The hatred rolls off of him in waves, crashing down on the victim, as a crushing pressure spreads across their chest.
Yet Sometimes The Hat Man doesn’t seem intent on causing any physical harm at all. Perhaps What he’s actually after is something more drawn out , more devious to quench his appetite.
At times He just seems to watch the sleeper, sometimes arching his overlong body over their bed just looming over them.
It’s said that even though he doesn’t touch his victims, they can feel evil emanating from him and They can sense that he wants to do them harm.
When he’s finally had his fill of fear and decides to leave, either using the door and either walking or gliding through it.
Historically, this is when many people call on their God to help them - for Christians, they often plead inside their heads for Jesus to help them - and after several excruciating seconds of feeling as if the Hat Man is trying to steal their souls, he slowly fades away.
But here’s the even more frightening part- research shows that the more you fear the Hat Man’s return, the more likely he is to return. Sometimes nightly, for years.
Who exactly is the Hat Man and why have people all over the world been experiencing him for as long as written history has existed?
Well that all depends on who you ask.
According to TheWeek.com, Harvard psychology researcher Baland Jalal told Scientific American, quote,”
For centuries, cultures across the world have attributed these hallucinations to black magic, mythical monsters, and even paranormal activity.” He also believes that the more people fear the Hat Man, the more likely it is that they will experience an encounter.
In Middle Eastern cultures, the Hat Man was believed to be a Djinn - what we in the West would call a genie.
But Djinn are nothing like the jolly blue genies in animated movies. Djinn are shapeshifters who spend most of their time invisible to humans. They can fly and they’re known to cause general mayhem.
The idea of the Djinn has been around in Western cultures since 1706, but in modern times, paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley wrote an entire book about the Djinn in 2013, called The Djinn Connection. She theorized in her book that the Djinn are actually responsible not just for Hat Man experiences, but also alien abductions. For those of you who have never heard of Rosemary Ellen Guiley.
But shadow people, in general, gained widespread attention here in the US 12 years before that, in 2001.
On April 12, 2001, the OG of paranormal podcasting, Art Bell, interviewed a Native American elder known as Thunder Strikes on his podcast, Coast to Coast AM.
Thunder Strikes basically talked about Shadow people and encouraged listeners to submit their own stories to Coast to Coast, including drawings of the shadow people they’d encountered.
This was the first time that the idea of Shadow People was really talked about in such a public way.
Apparently Coast to Coast received numerous drawings.
Thunder Strikes was apparently also a very controversial figure, but we won’t get into that.
In October of 2001, author Heidi Hollis published a book on Shadow People and began a stint as a regular guest on Coast to Coast.
In her book, she described shadow people as dark silhouettes that jump in and out of a person’s peripheral vision. She didn’t believe they were Djinn, she believed they were species of alien, that could be fought off (or vanquished) by calling on Jesus.
The alien theory has gained some traction- with many experts in the paranormal field believing that the Hat Man is a being from another dimension.
So let’s look a little more closely at the different theories:
And we might as well stay with the alien one for a minute.
According to liveabout.com, many people who claim to be victims of alien abduction describe similar characteristics between the Grays and Hat Man.
For starters, the Grays often walk through walls and seem to emerge from them as well- just like the Hat Man.
The Grays are also known to stand still for long periods of time and just stare down at their abductees - which is very similar to what the Hat Man does.
The question then, is: do the aliens take on the form and shape of the Hat Man or does Hat Man morph into the shape of a Gray?
There’s no answer to that, of course.
But being from another dimension doesn’t necessarily mean alien. There’s also the theory that the Hat Man is multidimensional but very human.
Scientists are beginning to agree more and more that space and time is multidimensional, and that other dimensions exist.
Some Shadow People experts propose that when one of these other dimensions comes too close to the dimension we live in, a sort of “bleed over” happens - human beings from that other dimension appear as shadows to us in ours.
But if this is true- why do they appear consistently as the Hat Man and why does he seem so menacing? Is it only certain beings in other dimensions that can do this - and are they all dressed the same way?
Are they scientists themselves, who are popping in and out of dimensions but they somehow don’t have the social cues to know how to act?
On the other hand, if this “bleed over” happens randomly, could you or I show up as a Hat Man to someone in another dimension?
That certainly seems to be some experts’ current theories about ghosts and hauntings - so why not Shadow People?
In fact, some people believe that Shadow People (like the Hat Man) and ghosts are the same thing.
If we do live in a multidimensional world, then ghosts are simply another form of this “bleed over.”
There’s two ways to look at this theory- one way is that ghosts really are the spirits of the dead, and sometimes their lives bleed over into ours.
The other thought is that ghosts are not dead at all - they’re actually very much alive in their own dimension - and yet, they are somehow bleeding over into our dimension.
This might explain the difference between intelligent and residual haunts.
What if Shadow People are the living version of other people from other dimensions and we refer to them as “ghosts” because that’s what we can relate to?
Skeptics of this theory point out that there’s a big difference between your common apparition - a sort of see-through, misty version of a person, and shadow people, which are very dark.
Maybe the more common ghostly apparition is someone who has crossed over dimensions numerous times and a Shadow Person is a newbie.
Another dimensional theory is that the Hat Man (or other Shadow People), are really the shadows of present-day living people who are having out-of-body experiences. The Hat Man is simply an astral projection of that person’s essence.
A third dimensional theory is that the Hat Man is a human time traveler from the future. However, as they time travel, they don’t manifest as a solid body, but a shadow instead.
With both of these theories- the astral projection and the time travel, I still wonder why the Hat Man would come across as so menacing. And why does he stare the way he does?
Is it a vibration thing- where the vibrations of their particles just feel menacing to us, even though the beings themselves don’t mean any harm?
Many people who have actually had Hat Man experiences might claim that every single one of these theories is a bunch of hooey because their experiences were so terrifying. And since invoking the name of religious figures seems to make the Hat Man go away, it’s possible that he’s some sort of demon.
This is definitely a popular theory- and it holds some weight across all cultures and belief systems.
If you want a more scientific explanation for the Hat Man, there’s one of those, too - sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis is a proven medical state that may be brought on by heightened stress or anxiety.
It occurs as a person is falling asleep or just waking up. Even though it affects anywhere from 5-40% of the world’s population, experts still don’t entirely understand why.
What sleep experts do know is that it happens when someone’s REM sleep is disturbed. During REM sleep, your brain purposely paralyzes your muscles in some ways, in order to keep you safe from physically acting out your dreams.
When sleep paralysis happens, your body is in that paralysis state but your mind is actually awake- and very aware that you can’t move.
According to WebMD.com, this state of paralysis can be accompanied by a loud buzzing noise, the sensation of flying or being dragged out of bed, and feeling as though you can’t breathe.
It doesn’t say this on Web MD, but many sleep study experts believe that it also causes hallucinations - like the Hat Man.
They do point out that sleep paralysis is 100% harmless and the best way to avoid sleep paralysis is to get plenty of sleep!
So- if the visits from the Hat Man are simply a symptom of sleep paralysis - then how come people all over the world are seeing the Hat Man, who looks exactly the same no matter what culture you might be from?
You’d think that if he’s simply a figment of our imagination during a disrupted REM cycle that he’d look different, depending on where you’re from.
And why are some people claiming to see him when they are 100% awake?
There are some ideas about that, too- which tend to center on the power of suggestion.
According to TheWeek.com, psychology professor Christopher French, believes that the Hat Man phenomenon could be a mixture of sleep paralysis and pop culture. He points to one of the most iconic of all horror movie villains- Freddy Krueger, as an example.
Freddy Kruger attacks while his victims are sleeping, and he wears a hat.
Perhaps people are experiencing sleep paralysis and in their waking sense of terror and fear at not being able to move, their subconscious is latching on to a very common figure of terror. And at this point, he’s known world-wide.
French’s theory lends itself to the proven fact that people who fear seeing the Hat Man again after a first experience often have a second or third - because the stress and anxiety of possibly seeing him again messes with their sleep- and so, they end up seeing him again. It’s a vicious, horrible cycle, starring a horror movie villain from 1994.
According to Ripleys.com, the Hat Man only varies slightly across cultures at this point- he can appear anywhere between 6 and 10 feet tall and his eyes may or may not glow red.
To some people, he appears to hold a gold pocket watch. But other than that, the reports are all the same- long coat, darker than the shadows, no other features, hat.
He’s generally silent- there are only a very few cases in which he allegedly spoke, and in all cases, he’s a watcher. He watches you from either a dark corner or he bends over you to peer down at you.
Sounds like stuff Freddy Krueger would do.
Sleep experts who say that sleep paralysis is the absolute cause of the Hat Man encounters would argue that people who claim they are totally awake when they see him are actually mistaken.
They are actually caught in a disrupted REM cycle- and although you may mentally feel as though you are awake, your body isn’t.
No one can definitively prove any of these theories - even sleep experts struggle to study sleep paralysis because it is so unpredictable as far as when or if it will happen.
WebMD.com does give some other helpful advice to try and avoid sleep paralysis : try not to go to bed feeling stressed or anxious.
Allow yourself to relax- because the more you fear falling asleep, the more likely you are to have sleep issues.
And make yourself stick to a regimented sleep schedule- in other words, make sure you get enough sleep every single night.
So- not a lot of help, there!
As I was researching, I came across an interesting website called The Hat Man Project. It’s an online forum of sorts where people can submit their own Hat Man experiences with no judgment.
If you’re interested in reading some of the experiences or if you want to submit one of your own, the web address is: thehatmanproject.com.
It has many many stories about people's experience with the Hat Man and they are fascinating to read. I highly recommend checking it out
So, like I said, who or what the Hat Man is depends on who you ask. And for those who have experienced it - it can be totally and utterly terrifying.
