Tim The Yowie Man explores 'Watson's Bottle', a subterranean silo near Yass

The Canberra Times

'Watson's Bottle' is an 8m deep abandoned silo that once held grain below the ground on Tony Wade's family property near Yass.

Transcript

00:00 At first glance, the entrance here to Cliftonwood on the outskirts of Yass

00:05 looks like that of just about any other 19th century pastoral property

00:10 in the New South Wales southern Tablelands.

00:13 It has a sign on the gate, a winding driveway, paddocks full of grazing stock

00:20 and even old machinery in the paddocks.

00:24 However, historic Cliftonwood also harbours a secret, a rare relic,

00:30 a subterranean silo called Watson's Bottle because of its shape

00:35 and also named after the man who lived here in the early 1840s when it was built.

00:42 Tony Wade, whose family has owned Cliftonwood for the last 70 years or so,

00:47 has invited me inside to check it out.

00:51 Ongoing underground.

00:54 Wish me luck.

00:59 It's 8 metres deep from the very top and 6 metres across in diameter.

01:11 It was used to store grain for Watson's Mill down across the river.

01:16 Just how much grain was ever put down here still remains a mystery.

01:21 I've got no idea.

01:23 My mum was a guide out at Cooma Cottage and she read it in a book out there

01:28 at one stage once and then she went looking for it a few times after

01:31 and could never find it.

01:33 But a few of these were built around the state back in early days

01:38 but abandoned only a short time later as considered impractical

01:47 to put grain under the ground and get it back up again

01:50 so grain storage was made on top of the ground instead.

01:53 There was probably no one down here for 40 or 50 years

01:57 but back when they built it of course this was a big job of the pick and shovel

02:02 so there had to be a lot of people down here at that stage

02:05 or it happened over a long period of time.

02:07 Since we've put this ladder down here in 2000, year 2000,

02:13 I'd imagine there's probably only been 50 or 60 people down here.

02:19 Well obviously when they dug Watson's Bottle this rock was known out here

02:26 so instead of trying to get rid of that little bit they've just worked around it

02:31 and left it there the same over here where this one comes out.

02:38 But of course with that in mind they're both on the side

02:45 so if there's rocks on the side there would have also probably been rocks in the middle

02:51 so they've obviously had to bludgeon them to pieces

02:54 and probably used them in the rock work to form the wall

02:58 and fill in the chips behind the wall and everything no doubt

03:03 but if you've ever tried to break that blue rock it's very hard

03:09 so how they did it you'd have to wonder.

03:12 [Music plays]

03:29 How it got down here and who put it down here still remains a mystery.

03:33 We don't know from back in those days.

03:37 Was it used as a murder weapon and disposed of or did it belong to the resident

03:42 and when his daughters were leaving Cliftonwood

03:47 they decided not to take it with them and where's the big hole we drop it down.

03:51 That's my theory.

03:53 Very privileged that's something somebody else hasn't got

03:55 well I shouldn't say some nobody else has got it but there would be some around.

03:59 Whether they're, this one reportedly is probably as big as any that were ever built.

04:08 I don't know whether it's right or not but if you've ever been to Mrs Macquarie's chair in Sydney

04:16 somebody told me that that was a small silo originally cut in half to make the chair.

04:21 Now I've never been there, never seen it so I can't comment

04:24 but he was adamant when he told me that's what it was.

04:28 (gentle music)

04:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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