The Haunted House

On our big trip, I decided that I had to go and look at this haunted house that my step daughter had told me about a long time ago.

So on the Friday afternoon, 4 of us hopped into the car and off we drove to Junee, a trip of about an hour.

We headed for an old house called Monte Cristo.

Christopher William Crawley originally took u p the land in 1876.

The original homestead was built in 1876, which became the servants quarters and kitchen when the main house was built in 1884.

The dairy and the stables were also built at this time.
The homestead remained in the Crawley family until 1948, the original contents of the house were sold at auction in 1952 and the house became derelict.

The homestead and remaining estate remained in the Crawley estate until purchased by the present owners, Reg and Olive Ryan on 3rd June 1963.

They are restoring the old home back to its former glory, and filling it with antique furniture.

A glorious old house isn't it?

The top veranda of the house

On the side of the top veranda are the steps leading back down to the first floor level, and a bedroom

The view from the top veranda - beautiful gardens and country.

This is the bedroom off the top veranda, it was originally a box room, but later became a chapel.

The kitchen and servants quarters

This building was originally the dairy and later became the caretakers office. These are Alan's grand daughters, Melanie and Sarah.

The same cottage inside

Leeanne, Melanie and Sarah standing outside the coach house

There are lots of old coaches and vehicles on display

This was a room in a stable hands little cottage and I found this the very strangest room - I felt someone walk over my grave when I looked in here!      Even looking at this picture gives me the same feeling!

 There are many tales told about this beautiful old house - one is about the family going out for the night and leaving no one at home - when they returned to the house later that night, all the lights in the house were on, and they had been off when they had left and locked up the house!!

That's said to have happened twice more.

Lots of tales of people appearing in photographs and walking along hallways and up and down stairs.  We didn't see any of that!

If you are interested, check out this site for more information about this old property.

Getting Into Young

Finally we are getting closer to Young, via Parkes and Grenfell.

The following pic are from the trip between Dubbo and Young - a distance of around 280 kms.  Tons of pictures, but this is just a selection of some to show the beautiful old buildings and different country..

beautiful old brick homes

flat land with great soil

old converted church

flat scrubby country

I love these old falling down places - what a story they could tell!

More roadworks heading into Young

Tomorrow we visit a haunted house at Junee!!

Part 4 of The Big Trip

I thought that tonight i will finish off our trip around the Dubbo Zoo for you - there will be a few more pictures than usual, but the zoo will be over then!

Don't forget to click on the pictures to make them larger and so you get a good look at them.

here we go:-

Lovely lioness sitting minding her own business and she would not turn around

Beautiful lion standing and looking and didn't want to turn around

I think he turned around at this point to tell us all to be quiet!

and this is why I think the lion wanted us to be quiet! Right next door to him!  No wonder neither of them were interested in us!

Some water buffalo

Bison with baby

Some zebras

And of course I can't finish this  up without some more information about my beloved tigers!

Food for thought.

I do hope that you have enjoyed the pics of the Dubbo Zoo, of course not all the animals are here, if I put them all in we would be here till Christmas almost, so I have selectively culled!

I'll be back tomorrow with the Dubbo to Young leg of our journey

The Big Trip part 3

Still continuing on at the   Dubbo Zoo:

Don't forget to click on the pictures and they will enlarge so that you can see them clearer:-

Here's the Cheetah, having a nice little rest in the sun

The elephants all have logs in their pens, and they pull the bark off with their trunks and eat it - I never knew they did that!

Now to the best of the lot - the tigers

This handsome young tiger is named Satu and he is quite relaxed here, thank you!

This tigers name is Juara, and he is the oldest male tiger at the park.

He weighs in at 150 kgs

Here's me again, feeding him his morning tea - talking away to him like he is a kitten!

So stunningly beautiful up close - just look at the size of those paws!

The tigers are fed 6 days a week and on the seventh day they fast. A lot of the feeding is done by us silly people who pay to do it!!  But it was just so worth it....

The zoo is thinking of breeding Juara next year.

This tigers name is Indah, and she was hand raised  at Alma Park Zoo in Queensland

It is interesting to look at the differences in laws between New South Wales and Queensland - in New South Wales, no keeper is permitted to enter any enclosure with any wild cat.  No hand raising is allowed.

So even though Indah loves the keepers at Dubbo, they cannot pat her or touch her in any way.  She loves the keepers, and rubs herself against the wire  to try and get a pat. She is very affectionate.

Here she is again, lying in the grass in her enclosure behind the scenes.

The big cats get one day a week out of the spotlight so they can relax and feel normal.

Well that is it for tonight - i'll be back tomorrow with more info on our trip.