Bunnings building on Halloween boom with shocking Scarehouse

As more Australians revel* in being spooked at Halloween every year, Bunnings has gone into fright mode with a reno that is not for the faint-hearted.

The hardware retailer has built its first ever “Scarehouse”, which opened today at one of their Sydney stores.

The haunted house experience at Alexandria in the NSW capital’s Inner West, was designed for kids aged eight and up and kicked off a series of family-friendly Halloween events across the country, offering Australians a safe and thrilling way to celebrate the spooky season.

“With 75 per cent of Aussies celebrating Halloween with children, we wanted to make it easy and affordable to join the fun,” Bunnings chief operating officer Ryan Baker said.

“We launched the Scarehouse to spark creativity and show what’s possible with our Halloween range through an immersive, spine-tingling experience.”

Not all cities will have a Scarehouse installed on site, but a Bunnings spokesperson said all stores will host family-friendly Halloween nights, with activities like face painting, games, and DIY* decorations.

The Scarehouse was inspired by the fast-growing enthusiasm for Halloween among Aussies.

And while the popularity of Halloween continues to grow each year across the country, safety remained a key concern for many families, with new insights revealing almost half of Australians (45 per cent) who intend to celebrate Halloween were worried about trick or treating safety.

The Bunnings insights also showed that one in four parents said safety fears stopped them from participating, with stranger danger* and traffic among the top concerns.

“Bunnings has always been about community, and we’re thrilled to provide a safe and family friendly experience for locals to come together and enjoy the thrills of Halloween,” Mr Baker said.

“Last year, we saw more than 57,000 attendees at our Halloween family nights, and this year we’re making the celebrations even bigger and better.”

South of the border, one family in Melbourne’s east can lay claim to having a “scare house” of their own.

The Byrnes family have again transformed their Mount Dandenong home into a delightful Halloween nightmare, with this year’s display set to be the scariest yet.

Mum Marlana Byrnes said her family began their Halloween tradition to mark her grandmother’s birthday on October 31.

“We would celebrate it for her and that is how the tradition started but it has just gotten bigger and bigger,” she said.

“We have such a passion for horror and Halloween and a few years ago we thought we should do something with it and make it more of a fundraiser for the community.”

Ms Byrnes said her family’s display this year was “next level”.

“Every year we do something different, so people come from all over to see it,” she said.

“Close to 1500 people came to see our decorations last year.”

This year’s creepy decor includes multiple large animatronic* decorations, special lighting effects and a gore-themed garage which visitors aged 18 and over can walk through if they dare.

“The garage is very full-on this year,” Ms Byrnes said.

The Byrnes family raise money through gold coin donations for Holy Fools Inc, a local Yarra Ranges charity that supports those facing homelessness.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• stranger danger: potential or perceived risk posed by unknown people to children, about which they may need to be warned to keep them safe
• animatronics: using machines like computers to make puppets and models move in a natural way

EXTRA READING

AI-generated icons cast a spell

Sad reality of common Halloween decoration

Is this Oz’s most haunted house?

QUICK QUIZ

1. Where is the Bunnings Scarehouse?
2. The Bunnings research insights found what proportion of parents had safety concerns at Halloween?
3. How many customers attended the hardware giant’s Halloween nights last year?
4. What are three activities planned for this year’s store events for Halloween?
5. Which part of the Byrnes’ haunted house is only suitable for visitors aged 18 and over?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Design a scary school house
Imagine that you have permission, and a budget, to create a scary school house at your school. Create a detailed plan. The only rule is that your ideas must be inspired by the scariest school that you can imagine!

Time: allow at least 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Design and Technologies

2. Extension
Some people say that Halloween is an American custom that we shouldn’t follow. Create a poster that would help to convince these people to change their minds.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Communication Design

VCOP ACTIVITY
Read this!
A headline on an article – or a title on your text – should capture the attention of the audience, telling them to read this now. So choosing the perfect words for a headline or title is very important.

Create three new headlines for the events that took place in this article. Remember, what you write and how you write it will set the pace for the whole text, so make sure it matches.

Read out your headlines to a partner and discuss what the article will be about based on the headline you created. Discuss the tone and mood you set in just your few, short words. Does it do the article justice? Will it capture the audience’s attention the way you hoped? Would you want to read more?

Consider how a headline or title is similar to using short, sharp sentences throughout your text. They can be just as important as complex ones. Go through the last text you wrote and highlight any short, sharp sentences that capture the audience.