As we were packing up this morning and as John was rolling the van forward to remove the blocks from under the wheels it ran over the TV satellite dish and reshaped it. He had forgotten the dish was there. Whoops! Now we need a new one! Glad it wasn’t me who did that. Junee is an agricultural town of 5000 people and almost halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. The caravan park was voted best NSW inland park in 2006 and had some good reports so we decided to try it and are glad we did. It is beautifully grassed with thick green grass (not sparse as in most parks) and overlooks a small lake. The amenities are spotless as is the BBQ and campers kitchen and there are bathmats in the showers (luxury), showers and drying area are large with lots of hooks (very unusual). Amazing what excites you when you have been on the road for almost 7 months. The town reminds us a little of Collie in that it is split by a railway line with an older part on one side and a newer part on the other. It doesn’t strike us as being a prosperous town with a lot of shops either for lease, closed down or empty. Haven’t been to a town with so many P platers either. This town is famous for having Australia’s most haunted house “The Monte Cristo” which sits on a hill overlooking the town. We did the tour and it was very interesting. The owners (Reg and Olive Ryan) bought the house in 1963 after it had been empty for a decade and consequently had been badly vandalised and was a shadow of its former glory. After the original owners family had moved out the house was left empty and deteriorated. A caretaker was put in to care for the property but did little to maintain it and vandals and looters took over. The caretaker was shot by a youth who had watched the Hitchcock thriller ’Psycho’ and no one would take on the caretaker position so the vandals had a freehand. No room escaped vandalism. Without running water and electricity the young family (three young daughters and Mrs Ryan five months pregnant with the fourth) started renovating the house as close to its former glory as they could. They have done a fantastic job and even today they are still making improvements. To pay for the renovations Reg Ryan got into trading antiques so they could furnish the house. Luckily this was before antiques really took off and could be bought fairly cheaply. The house is still the family home with Mr and Mrs Ryan still living there. There are many stories of the hauntings and much interest from ‘ghost hunters’ nationally and internationally and many TV stories have been made about the house including Getaway. Some tourists to the house have had ‘reactions’ in certain rooms, mainly the drawing room, dining room and the boy’s room. Murder, suicide and unexplained deaths have tainted the house’s history. No animals will enter inside the house. When the Ryan’s moved in with their family pets, the pets ran away from the property never to be seen again. Each year the Ryan’s hold a charity ball with guests travelling from all around Australia and overseas and everyone has to dress up in Victorian costume. It is now so popular they have a waiting list with no guarantee of getting an invite. They also do a ‘Ghost Tour” which is a dinner and B&B and are booked out for months ahead. It was a very worthwhile and interesting tour. The Monte Cristo website has some very interesting info about the house's history and its hauntings. The ext day we went to the licorice factory. This is the only organic licorice manufacturer in Australia and one of three in the world. It is an old flour mill that still produces flour and licorice is a value add product and just recently they have included chocolate. We went on a tour to see how the licorice is make, mainly flour and sugar with licorice root powder. They also make a spelt licorice which I thought tasted nicer. It was definitely the nicest licorice we have tried and yes we bought some. The other thing we did was save a fish that had got hooked to an empty coke bottle that was been used as a float on the lake and had a line with a hook attached to it. People must think we are mad but John managed to hook the coke bottle and release the fish, a carp which is a large pest but we couldn’t let it die.
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