School is never anyone’s favourite, but the way Ian Curlewis remembers it the kids from the Uriarra forestry settlement went further than most to avoid their bookwork, filling the petrol tank of the school bus with sand or water each night so they were stranded at home.
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Mr Curlewis said the bus driver began parking in the hayshed on his farm, near the Cotter dam and on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, where the kids couldn’t get at it. There was a pay-off for his four children, who need only stroll to the farm shed in the morning to catch the school bus.
Mr Curlewis, now 88, was recalling his family’s time during the 1970s and 1980s at Nerreman, one of two Canberra farms contaminated with Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos.
The government bought the property from most recent owner Dorothy Topfer for $1.9 million in 2015 and has demolished the house, with the 97 hectare farm now up for auction on September 4.
Mr Curlewis and wife Bev built the home in 1972, when the builder installed the loose-fill asbestos.
“He thought it was great idea. They just get in there and blow it all into the ceiling,” he said.
Found to be deadly, the asbestos was removed almost 20 years as part of a clean-up of more than 1000 Canberra homes. The roof was encased in plastic while government contractors “in space suits” cleaned and sealed the ceiling cavity.
Mr Curlewis said the family was concerned for a time, given the ceilings were plywood, so not well sealed, and remembering high winds over the years. But so far, no one had shown ill effects.
Mr Curlewis, now on a farm property near Orange, said Nerreman, named for the bend in the Murrumbidgee River, was carved off from a 3200 hectare property owned by Doug Hyles. Originally freehold, it was converted in 1978 to a month-to-month rural lease – and after the Curlewises left, to a 99 year lease.
Mr Curlewis, who was a competitive swimmer, remembers the private access to the Murrumbidgee River where the water was sharp and clear. Each morning from the October long weekend to Anzac Day began with a swim, with the current was so strong he could get in his 20 minutes training against the current without moving from the spot.
He sold the farm to Michael Blake, who sold in turn to public servant Dorothy Topfer, who moved to the farm with husband John and their three children. Canbera's farming community is small - and in an odd twist, Mr Topfer's parents owned the neighbouring Windsale property before Michael Blake. Mr Blake sold Winsdale to the ACT government last year, but is believed to be still managing both properties.
Mrs Topfer said the government’s buyback and demolition of their home in 2015 sparked a decision to leave Canberra and the couple now live in Tasmania, where John Topfer continues working as a sculptor and she has given rein to her dream of becoming a novelist.
“None of us really wanted to go. The kids were very upset,” she said. “We’ decided that to get on with our lives we had to move to a new adventure I guess - to move to something, rather than just run away.”
The farm was overrun by the 2003 bushfires when Mr and Mrs Topfer and one of their children sheltered in the house with the family pets while the fire burned everything around them, including sheds, fencing and the garden, and leaving, she says, just one tree. The fire caught hold of the house, but burned only a bedroom and bargeboards, the rest saved by sprinklers on the perimeter.
Some years later, the couple replaced the roof. But despite the asbestos clean-up of the late 1980s and the new roof, some asbestos fibres were still found when the house was tested in 2014.
Mrs Topfer said she was “very very upset” during the Fluffy crisis and the buyback. The family had considered staying and rebuilding the home themselves or buying back the farm after the demolition, but weren’t in a position to take on a big mortgage.
“We had no choice,” she said. “.. We felt like to be practical, use the head rather than the heart, that we had to take the offer.”
She still has fond memories of the wildlife on the property and sleeping with the bedroom door open at night to hear the sound of the river - and warning the kids when a snake appeared beside them while swimming in the water.
“We were all very sad about having to leave. It is the most magnificent place, it is unique because so close to town but so isolated.”
Real-estate agent Peter Scott, from Colliers, said it was a spectacular property, and while the house is now gone, water tanks, the hay shed, stockyards, garage and sculptures remain.
“The view from where the house existed down the river corridor over the Murrumbidgee is just beautiful,” he said.
The property is open on August 29 and auctioned on September 4.
