Tim the Yowie Man: Visit Watsons Bottle, a rare underground silo at Yass

I'm at Cliftonwood on the outskirts of Yass, and Tony Wade, the owner of this historic circa-1840 property, has lured me into one of Australia's only remaining convict-built underground silos.

"Keep going Tim, I've brought at least 50 people down here over the last 20 years and most have survived," he muses, his voice reverberating around the eight-metre-deep abyss, which he calls "Watsons Bottle", due to its shape and the name of the European settler it was built for.

As I edge slowly down past the intricate sandstone blocks that form a perfect dome at the opening and into the "neck", I notice the remains of some swallow nests clinging perilously to the blue granite walls - even they've flown the coup. And I don't blame them.

"You made it!" exclaims Tony, a touch of surprise in his voice, as I eventually reach the bottom of his subterranean silo.

Illuminated by a single shaft of daylight from the entrance high above (Indiana Jones, eat your heart out), Tony explains that convicts built this for Hamilton Hume and his brother-in-law John Watson, to store grain.

Peering up at the near-perfect bottle-shaped walls, I marvel at the monumental effort it would have been to first hack the hole out of the ground with pickaxes and then drag rocks down from surrounding hills, cut them to size and line that void. It's extraordinary. An engineering masterpiece for its time.

"Records don't indicate exactly what was stored in here but given Watson and Hume built a steam-powered flour mill across the river at the same, it was likely to store wheat," says Tony.

Another possible theory is that it was built to bolster food security for the fledgling colony. "Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the design of Watson's Bottle resembles several similar underground silos that were built on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour at the same time, to store grain in case of a future famine," explains Tony.

Whatever its purpose, it's likely the bottle was filled with bagged grain of some sort, and although there's no remnant of a tripod and pulley, Tony believes "they probably used a horse-powered pulley to hoist the grain in and out".

While a must-see on any visit to Cliftonwood today, when Tony's family bought the property in the late 1940s, it's entrance, which forms a pronounced mound in the paddock, was long forgotten, having been covered with sheets of iron and wooden posts.

"Dad used to roll an old Buick down the side of the mound to kick start it," reveals Tony, "but the bottle itself really was out of sight and out of mind."

However, that all changed one day in 1972, when Tony's dad decided to plaster the walls and turn it into a water tank.

"When we pulled back the sheets of iron and peered in, the only way down was via a rotten wooden pole with a few nailed slats half hanging off," says Tony. "There's no way it would have held our weight so dad borrowed a long ladder from the electricity commission.

"It was strange being down here after it being closed for so long," says Tony who won bragging rights as first down the ladder.

You'd expect the base to have been littered with rubbish from a bygone era but all Tony found at the base was a lone pistol.

"How it got here is anyone's guess," says Tony.

"Maybe a previous owner simply threw it away as it was broken or no longer needed, or perhaps, just perhaps, it was something more sinister ... maybe a murder weapon?" suggests Tony, a glint in his eye. Well, this was once bushranger country.

After his dad abandoned the water tank concept, the bottle remained closed until about 20 years ago when Tony fashioned the current steel ladder. He also welded a locked metal grate at the opening.

"I didn't want bad air to be trapped at the bottom, so I covered the top with a secure metal grate that allows air flow," he explains.

However, the grate has become a hazard for passing wildlife, with at least one brown snake found dead at the bottom, presumably having fallen in.

"Another time I found a live rock lizard down here," says Tony. "I'm not sure if it fell in and survived or somehow crawled down the ladder."

While for safety reasons Tony is unable to open the silo to any public tours, on September 30 visitors will get a rare chance to at least peek into it from the top.

"Cliftonwood is hosting an open day, with all funds going to the Yass Valley CanAssist, a charity which provides financial assistance to help locals with cancer with out-of-pocket expenses," explains Tony.

MORE YOWIE MAN:

CanAssist president Geoff Frost - who also braved the wobbly descent to join us at the bottom of the bottle - says the charity plans to turn Watson's Bottle into a giant wishing well.

"Oh, and at the end of the day we'll need a volunteer to climb down and collect all the money, preferably someone with a big Akubra to put the coins in," he adds, looking in my direction.

I look the other way. One trip to the bottom of Watson's Bottle is enough for me.

Cliftonwood Open Day: 9am-3pm, Saturday September 30, entry by donation, all funds to Yass Valley CanAssist. 41 Irvine Drive, Yass. A fun family day including live music, bush games, food and drink stalls, and working demonstrations of antique farm machinery.

Don't miss: Tony Wade's tours of original circa-1840 homestead with its 1876-77 extensions. If you go, here are my top 4 things to look out for.

Baize Door: This door, sound-proofed with baize (a thick green material made from wool, like that used on billiard tables) divided the staff quarters and the wider family home. Not only did the baize prevent the staff eavesdropping on their masters, but it also softened clanging sounds from the kitchen. As wool is a fire retardant it also reduced the fire risk in the main home.

Servants bells: Ask Tony about the remarkable story of how they were restored.

Hume's death bed: On loan from Yass & District Historical Society, the bed on display in the main bedroom is thought to be the very bed Hamilton Hume, of explorer fame, died in at his home a few kilometres up-river at Cooma Cottage in 1873.

The pistol: The relic Tony found in the bottom of the Watson's Bottle is on display in a cabinet in the dining room along with other memorabilia. Don't worry, it's no longer in working order - Tony assures me the bullet-like hole in the adjacent window was due to a lawn mower flicking up a wayward stone.

Did You Know? Although Cliftonwood was owned by Hamilton Hume, John Watson and his wife Susannah (Hume's sister-in-law) were the first residents. It's believed the bottle was no longer used after the Watsons moved to England in 1855. The mill was sold and damaged beyond repair in the 1870 flood.

Rating: Easy - Medium

Clue: It's a wonder it's not called Hamilton's Pool, just about everything else in town is named after him.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday 23 September wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Last week: Congratulations to John Hyslop of Torrens who was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo as the daunting staircase greeting walkers at Maloneys Beach at the start of the Murramarang South Coast Walk. John reports he and his wife recently took their visitors from Germany to a picnic with the kangaroos by the beach and a walk towards North Head. "There are 131 steps and I felt each one," muses John. "I had to stop halfway to wait for my recently installed pacemaker to catch up with me." John just beat Jim Huet of Garran, Colin Chartres of Deakin, and Anna Browne of Wanniassa.

Every spring more and more shutterbugs are making a beeline to the extensive canola fields of southern NSW to capture that must-have Insta-worthy photo.

This photo taken by Michael Lees (@michael_lees_photography) during one of his recent "Canberra Photography canola and balloon workshops" shows the different perspectives that flying high can give compared to traditional photography from the ground.

While the circular patterns around the two trees in this photo are simply those left inadvertently by the farmer's tractor, I wonder how long it will be before crop circles and large-scale crop art (sorry I won't entertain the alien theory!) like those that pop up each year in Wilshire in England start to appear in our fields.

CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601

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