All Dolled Up At The Monte Cristo Homestead

There's a subset of museums that are a labor of love. Some private citizen buys an old house, hotel, renovates it and crams the building with historical artifacts. Kind of like tinkering with a big antique car.

The Monte Cristo Homestead in Junee, Australia is a good example of this type of museum. It was just an old, abandoned house on a hill until Reg and Olive Ryan bought the place in 1963. They've been renovating, caring for and cramming items into the Homestead ever since. And let's not start about the 10 resident ghosts.

The big house. Christopher William Crawley built his dream Victorian manor in 1885.

The renovation and craftsmanship are impressive. Nice fern details in the wrought iron porch railing. Inside, more, more, more.

Right, those ghosts. Plenty of mannequins about, major themes on the weekly haunted house tour.

Upstairs bedroom and flower stillife.

Oh, this guy so did something.

The Australian War Memorial

The Australian capital, Canberra, hosts an impressive military memorial museum, an Art Deco beauty housing many artifacts related to the country's involvement in various campaigns.

Central courtyard, quite an entrance.

WWII relics, Nazi vehicles and depth charge.

A photographic wall of remembrance for soldiers lost during the WWII Pacific campaign battle against the Japanese in Sandakan, Borneo, Malaysia.

A statue of WWI General Sir John Monash. Nice back. WWI era fighter plane.

Taking a little rest outside the memorial. Battle ready.

Still Wandering Around Australia

More small sights seen in Australia.

Staring sheep.

Tree crop. A KFC bucket in the middle of a field.

Horses grazing in someone's garden.

Landscape with detritus. A sculpture of the Tucker Box dog. The figure originates from a folksy poem about a dog guarding a tucker box, a sort of large lunchbox.

The tip of the Melbourne skyline.

Objects At The Army Museum In Bandiana

Life in the military, told through small details.

The ubiquitous ready to eat meal, all packages and packets.

WWII era care packages and powdered gold.

Radio gear that's capable of melting one's face.

Fine dining china for the officers. Memories of Vietnam.

Field surgery kit. You do not want to meet one of these kits.

Posing At The Army Museum In Bandiana

The Army Museum features an extensive collection of uniforms and several mannequins proudly posing in the military duds. It's a regular runway fashion show.

Duster, medals and a caring nurse.

Working in the machine shop, bringing the attitude.

Expressive hand. Hunky in suspenders.

Heaven and hell: saintly nurse, shirtless in Vietnam.

The Army Museum Bandiana

If the national grandmother of Australia had a giant attic and her family just loved military surplus, it would look like the Army Museum in Bandiana. The place is the largest military museum in the country and there's little doubt about that claim when you're inside the building.

The museum is a giant shed, packed with gear, uniforms, vehicles.

Let's start with guns and ammo. Know your pistols and revolvers and read the handbook.

Clever WWI contraption, a rifle that shoots a round automatically, timed by water circulating through containers to put weight on the trigger.

Dinner for Queen and Country. Appropriately painted amphibious vehicle.

Outside, the big boom boys.

Junee Roundhouse Museum

A model railroad in actual size. The Junee Roundhouse Museum in New South Wales, Australia is a nice collection of old locomotives, rail cars and related train gear, housed within a working roundhouse. Time to hop aboard.

A rainbow of locomotives lines up within the roundhouse. Heavy metal.

Steam and diesel locomotive areas, tough work in any time period.

Former engineer. He hangs out, happy to tell railroad stories.

A first class rail car and a leather seated, wood paneled compartment inside.

A section of one of the old boards used to keep track of the train routes. Do not get your signals crossed.

Hooray For Hay In Australia

The state of Victoria is overflowing with hay. During February, harvested hay is plentiful and piled in field after field. The stacks are an impressive sight, much bigger bales than found in the US. Piled up, big walls of hay.

A typical hay monolith.

Round bales are also scattered about.

Hay wall along a fence line.

Working the wall.

Hay as environmental art.