Halloween queen Tweed woman Deslee Barker of Pottsville opens home to public for spooky season one last time
A fun-loving Tweed woman has spent two decades whipping up spooky work costumes and turning her home into a Halloween drawcard, but she’s shutting the doors. Here’s Deslee’s story.
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A well-known Tweed woman, the Halloween queen, will be opening her home to the public for one last Halloween walk-through after 20 years of thrilling children and adults alike.
Pottsville resident and Foodworks checkout worker Deslee Barker, 57, gets into the spooky season every year by dressing up for shifts in the two weeks leading up to Halloween.
She takes the week off work leading up to Halloween and devotes herself to decorating her Black Rocks home to open it up for public walk-ins.
There has been hundreds of visitors from across the shire in recent days.
Ms Barker hangs cobwebs and bats from the ceilings while strategically positioning skeletons, props, pumpkins and lollies around the house.
She said she would be accepting voluntary gold coin donations this year to go “towards the million batteries I get each year”.
Ms Barker said it takes her an hour to prepare the attraction and she was devastated it will be her last year inviting Halloween guests.
“I open the house for five days, I take a week of my holidays just to get the public through the house,” she said.
“I’ve been doing it for 20 years and my body is just getting too old. I wanted to do it for longer but my body is exhausted.”
In the past four days, Ms Barker has welcomed about 800 visitors into her home – with more to follow on Tuesday night.
She said people were waiting an hour and a half during a thunderstorm to view her home on Monday night
Walk-ins began at 2pm and were scheduled to finish at 7pm, but last night they wrapped up at 9pm.
Ms Barker began decorating her house after she had her first baby.
“I wanted to have a really cool Halloween party that wasn’t just a couple of signs, so I started mucking around and making props. Then I found eBay which changed Halloween for me,” she said.
Walk-ins began when children wanted to see the decorations in Ms Barker’s house, so she invited them and their parents inside to view them.
“It began snowballing from there,” she said.
Ms Barker said she sees many of her visitors every day at Foodworks and tries her best to remember names.
“They are very nice people and I’m glad they’ve embraced my weirdness,” she said.
“Adults, teenagers and kids are all beautiful, they are all so happy and grateful.
“I’m going to miss it, I know I’ll be teary tonight. I feel so bad that it’s my last year.”
During the walk-ins, Ms Barker encourages children to “have fun in life”
“Life is too short and you’ve got to enjoy it,” she said.
“You’re never too old to dress up.”
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