Tim the Yowie Man: The sunken houses of Lake George

 

• Tim the Yowie Man

   

While recently exploring the countryside around Canberra, Gungahlin's Yvonne McLauchlan and her 12-year-old son Conor stumbled upon two "sunken houses".

The McLauchlans spotted the first curious construction while geocaching at Lake George, near Bungendore, and the second while enjoying a Sunday drive on the other side of the enigmatic lake, near Collector.

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Tim towers over the sunken house on Lake George near Bungendore. Photo: Justin Bush

Had the inquisitive duo discovered top-secret trial locations for Cockington Green's latest miniature model houses or had they uncovered the hideaways for a covert community of vertically challenged farmers?

This week, in an attempt to determine the true origins of these sunken houses, your akubra-clad columnist hopped in the Yowie mobile and followed in the dusty tracks of the McLauchlans to the ancient shores of Lake George.

The Lake Road 'sunken house"

Why is this sunken house on the shores of Lake George? Photo: Yvonne McLauchlan​

"When we got to the end of Lake Road [between Bywong and Bungendore] we saw what I thought was a house sitting on the lake," reports Yvonne.

"It looked like it was half hidden by a hill but the geocaching app described it as a shrunken house rising out of the lake bed so we had to explore.

"It was really strange, it was just like half the house was in the ground, including the inside."

Conor was especially intrigued by a decrepit kangaroo skeleton in the house's inner sanctum. "We couldn't work out if it went in to die or was placed there," Yvonne says.y.

The McLauchlans aren't the first readers to report this striking structure, and a bit of digging by this column reveals that it was actually an entry for the art competition at the 2010 Weereewa (indigenous name for Lake George) Festival.

Made from brick, iron and timber, the sunken house, or its official name Sands of Time, was the brainchild of sculptor Dave Argaet, and it ended up claiming first prize.

Despite its sturdy appearance, Argaet, a Bungendore-based stonemason who dabbles in landscape art, reveals that "it only took my son, my daughter and a few mates a couple of days to build it".

Argaet says "working on the lake bed near dusk was bloody eerie".

"Just on sunset we all felt a bit weird, a sense of dread, so we packed up and came back the next morning,'' recalls Argaet, explaining, "many of people have died on that lake."

Unfortunately, since its construction the lake bed surrounding Sands of Time has been mainly dry, but Argaet lives in hope that one day the lake will fill up and it will "finally become a genuine sunken house".

Meanwhile, the folk at the nearby Silver Wattle Quaker Centre report "many of our visitors arrive perplexed as to the origins of the little house"

The centre's director Sheila Keane explains that "when the festival was over, while all the other art installations were removed from the lake bed, Silver Wattle granted permission for the sculpture to remain".

How the kangaroo skeleton found its way into the house remains a mystery.

The Collector "sunken house"

Another sunken house, this one near Collector. Photo: Yvonne McLauchlan

This "sunken house" is also on private property and the remains of a substantial chimney alongside it provides a clue to its origins.

According to Gary Poile of Collector, the land originally belonged to Henry Rabjohn, a British Army Sergeant who in the early 1800s managed a gang of convicts working on the extensive Winderadeen pastoral run, just south of present-day Collector.

"When Rabjohn retired they gave him this land in appreciation of his service," reports Poile, whose great grandmother was Rabjohn's daughter.

"There was a much bigger house on the site, but a fire burned it down around 1930," explains Poile. "Afterwards they used roofing iron to build a small hut which eventually became a hay shed.

"One day the owner took the hay out and a few days later the shed just folded over," reports Poile, who says while the roof still keeps things dry underneath, the shed is not habitable in any way.

"Well, not unless you are a snake," he deadpans.

Fact File

If you go: Both these "sunken houses" are on private property and without express permission of the landowners should only be viewed from afar. The best vantage spot to check out "Sands of Time" is about 10 kilometres along Lake Road (which runs off Bungendore Road). The Collector house is located about 1.5 kilometres on the village side of the Collector Road if driving towards Gunning.

Did You Know? Gary Poile has an antique wooden chaise lounge, a circa-1840 heirloom of the Rabjohns, which although he claims, "is an ugly looking thing", is unable to part with "because of the family history." This week he dusted it off for this photograph.

Tim lies on the antique chaise lounge which used to take pride of place in the parlour of this now "sunken house" near Collector. Photo: Gary Poile

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