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