When and where to visit the haunted house of Darwin’s ‘Halloween King’

Step inside the home of the Territory’s own Halloween King with cackling witches, an army of zombies and dolls at every corner. PLUS your guide to trick or treating.

A zombie room, cackling witches and car-sized spiders, not to mention $500 worth of lollies alone.

These are just some of the things that go into transforming Paul Burgess’ home into one of Darwin’s spookiest houses every Halloween.

Mr Burgess, a Bunnings manager in his day job, takes two weeks of leave every year to assemble a nightmare world filled with haunted dolls, clowns and creepy-crawlies, both dead and alive.

Paul Burgess The Halloween King get's ready to show his collective pieces for Halloween at Anula, NT. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The attraction draws about 1000 trick or treaters annually, with gold coin donations going to charity – this year’s event to benefit Amber NT.

“Around here I’m known as the Australian Halloween King. I’ve been doing this for seven years and loving it,” he said.

MAPPED: Where to trick or treat tonight

“It’s a full immersive walk-through … about 10 or 15 close family and friends will be dressed up on the night which adds to the atmosphere.”

You can visit the Australian Halloween King’s haunt on Springhill Street in Anula, between 6pm and 9pm on Tuesday.

Paul Burgess get's ready to show his collective pieces for Halloween at Anula, NT. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Paranormal encounters and real-life horrors: the spookiest Territory stories

Darwin’s rural area can be all kinds of wacky, weird and downright terrifying.

Locals have rumoured for years there are ghosts lurking around Girraween and Hillier roads, with residents telling tales of their dogs barking into thin air and an unshakeable feeling of being watched.

Glimpses of a tall, silhouetted man who is believed to be a car crash victim are just one of the reasons this area near Coolalinga gives many people the chills.

NT News cartoonist Colin Wicking released the book 'The Haunting at Mango Flat', which references the Horny Humpty Doo poltergeist of NT News fame.

And then there was the poltergeist that reportedly terrorised a Humpty Doo home in the late 90s.

Some episodes included reports of knives flying through the air at a priest and a pistol cartridge falling from “nowhere”.

The story was rated the second spookiest in a book that covered 50 of Australia’s poltergeist episodes from the last two centuries.

NT News memorable front pages (Horny Ghost)

Who could forget the iconic NT News front page of a horny ghost named Kevin?

Durack resident Jennifer Mills-Young claimed the ghost once tried dragging her out of bed one night by the wrist.

“I yelled at Kevin that he was not welcome in my bedroom and that he couldn’t come into bed with me. I told him to f*** off and to close the door behind him,” she famously said.

CDU Anomalistic Psychologist and CDU Lecturer, Dr Krissy Wilson in the main cell block at the Old Fannie Bay Gaol. Picture GLENN CAMPBELL

Closer to the city, visitors to the Fannie Bay Gaol, which housed Darwin prisoners for a century, have reported to have felt an invisible hand glide over the steel bars and heard sounds of a body being dragged along one of the corridors.

You can take a tour of the Gaol and all of its haunted corners, including the gallows where inmates were executed up until 1952.

Visits are free, but you couldn’t pay us to go.