An elderly couple from Ipswich, Queensland made headlines for a peculiar reason. The couple in their 70s had never thought that the house they were living in since 1990s was going to deprive them of their sleep. It all happened one morning when a neighbor told them that there is a sinkhole in their backyard. It was wide and deep filled with water. However, the most astonishing point was not that but what came after that.
Beautiful City
The incident took place in Queensland of Australia. This beautiful city became a center of fear when this unbelievable news rose to the scene. The couple was lost in their sleep while the entire town was crowded in front of their house.
Ipswich
It is a northeastern state of Australia that covers the continent’s most tropical and wettest part. The coral sea bounds it from the north and east. And it is New South Wales that bounds it from the south. Ipswich falls in the South East Queensland of Australia. The region is sprawled over 1090 square km and boasts a population of 210,000.
Ray And Lynnette McKay
Ray and Lynnette McKay are retired couple who were spending their life after retirement in a house in Ipswich, Queensland. It is a beautiful suburb with a peaceful atmosphere. It was indeed a perfect place for them to spend the rest of their lives.
Close To Heart
The couple loved nature and that is the very reason they decided to spend the rest of their lives in Ipswich. However, little did they know that nature is not always kind to their lovers. The McKays had settled in the town since 1991.
Surprising Truth
Ray Mckay and Lynn were soon going to find out a surprising truth about their house. The couple was living alone in the house as their children were not in the town. However, they would visit them every now and then.
Friendly Neighbors
The McKays were very friendly by nature. They had good relations with all their neighbors. Lynn loved talking to people and that is why she was her neighbors’ favorite. However, soon the couple was going to be famous for a different reason altogether.
Mysterious Hole
It all happened one fine day when a giant mysterious hole ripped open in front of their house. It came out of nowhere and surprisingly, the residents got this news from their neighbors. When they came out they had their heart in their mouth.
Ground Was Being Swallowed
Everything changed overnight. The ground first quivered and then it began to collapse. It was a tragic sight to see. The couple had never imagined in their entire life that they would see something like this. But why did that happen? How did this hole appear? There was an amazing story behind that.
A Knock
Lynn reminisces, “Nine o’clock I got a knock on the door and it’s the chap from next door.” The woman had not expected what the man told him. She immediately called her husband and rushed outside.
A Hole
She further stated, “I come out and I’ve got a hole in the ground, it was only a little one, a metre, and it’s just got bigger since.” The story was only going to be scarier from there on. It was not any ordinary sinkhole. It had kept many secrets within it.
The Sinkhole Was Huge
They were scared and curious both at the same time. The backyard was all plain yesterday and today there was a giant hole. They immediately contacted the authorities before any further damage. Scaringly, the hole was filled with water.
The Sinkhole Got …Famous!
What worse, the hole was broadening with every passing hour. The ground was crumbling into a vast chasm. They feared that their house too would fall into the hole if not taken action in time. So they contacted the authorities without wasting a minute.
Authorities
Authorities appeared on the scene soon after. The couple was standing outside their house. The authorities too could not understand what was that but something had to be done in time. Meanwhile, the couple was advised to put up in a hotel.
First Time
Lynn and McKay were married to each other for a long time. Never had they ever seen something like that in their entire life. However, it was real and right before their eyes. So, the authorities had taken the charge still no concrete solution seemed to be in sight.
Viral News
Soon the news got viral. Everyone in the locality and the country heard about this peculiar incident. They all had only one question: How did this hole come about? By appearance, it looked like a sinkhole. The sinkhole in itself was not news but what was found under it.
Getting The News
Their daughter Tracey O’Neill learned about the incident from a Facebook post. “I called Mum after seeing a big hole in their yard and she said ‘can’t talk we’re leaving the house’,” O’Neill said. The woman immediately got into the car and drove from Toowoomba to see her parents.
Pretty Exhausted
O’ Neill went on to say, “We are all pretty exhausted, we came down at 9 am this morning haven’t had a chance to sit down and catch up with my parents yet.” “I just thought not again. They had already lost everything in the floods and that was nearly the end of Mum and Dad emotionally and physically and then I saw this.”
Next Step
O’Neil said, “I think at this stage we are just going to be looking at the next step, we will have more of an idea tonight and tomorrow.” On being asked if her parents would leave the house after the incident she replied that this house is the first property that they bought with their own money. So there was no way they were going to leave that
Only Home
“Mum and dad are really happy there, it is the first home they have bought it is the only home they are going to live in . They have been through the floods, been through this, not much more that can happen. If they have to move then there would be another option but at the moment I’m not trying to stress my parents out.”
No Clue
The ground continued to sink in and the authorities were still not aware of the reason behind this occurrence. But soon they discovered the cause.
Initial Assessment
Dr. Anthony Lynham, minister for Mines stated, “We suspect what has happened is an artificial cap was put on the hole and there is a big body of water that has been under that hole for quite some time.” “When the cap sunk, the water has come up, that is initial assessment,” concluded Anthony.
Until The Hole Came
The couple had no idea that the house they were living in was hiding something. There was something beneath the ground that remained in oblivion until this hole occurred.
Coal Mining Shaft
The authorities and the couple learned that there was a coal mining shaft beneath the backyard. Perhaps the shaft was built in the early 1900s. Now everything seemed clear. The ground crumbled because of the collapse of the shaft beneath it.
Coal Road
It was then the McKays realized why the street they were living in was called Coal Road. The lane had many coal shafts out there in earlier times. And this one happened to be one of them.
The Family Had to Move
It was confirmed that the shaft was beneath the backyard but the authorities were still not sure whether it was under the house or not. And in that situation, they did not want to take any risk. That is why the couple had to shift to some other place for some time. It was a painful decision for them as they had been staying in the house since 1991 and had grown attached to it.
Widening
The sinkhole, on the other hand, was growing larger day by day. Scaringly, in a matter of a week, the hole had gone up to 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The timber covering the shaft had rotten and that is why the ground base above it crumbled down.
Growing Bigger
One of the neighbors, Ken Morton explained, “I think it’s grown another two meters all around since I last saw it yesterday,” he explained, “I don’t believe it will grow any bigger than it is now. It has been quite a shock and spectacle so far.”
Scared And Hopeful
Lynn was terrified to her soul. “You don’t expect something like this to happen in your backyard,” she said.”I don’t want it to take my clothesline – you can’t get those anymore. The bigger the hole gets the more nervous I am feeling. Will it stop? Won’t somebody do something?”
The House Wasn’t In Any Danger
Luckily, the hole did not reach the house. The shaft was limited to their backyard only. Soon, the house saw miners who came to take stock of the situation. They even helped the couple in bringing out the water from the hole and many other important works.
Work Begins
“The mines people are outside surveying the situation, looking at that and everyone’s around, I don’t know who’s here and who’s not,” said Lynn. “They’re bringing in pumps and things now, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.” The couple was clueless as what was happening to their house.
Shaft
The mayor put forth some facts about the shaft. He explained that one shaft was actually built in the same area but that was believed to be at least 40 meters far from the recently found hole. The misconception would have arisen because of lack of record keeping in early 1900. Not to forget it was dug sometime between 1903 and 1920.
A Problem
Pisasale further described, “Where I was concerned about this one was no one had any record of mining here, and I’m thinking, holy smokes, is there a problem here.” “But it was never a mine, it was just a shaft that they created. One thing about back then, they were very bad at keeping records.”
Not Worth It
Mayor stated, “This is a very old area of the city and local mine expert Ken Grubb has identified there was a shaft put in many years ago, in 1903, and they identified the coal was too deep and not worth it.”
All The Steps
He opened up, “It will get worse for the next couple of hours. It’s an exploratory shaft that goes down about 100 metres and there’s no need to panic about a neighbourhood falling in, and we will take all the steps to get Lyn and Ray back in their house,”
Support
It was a tough time for the couple. However, they were receiving support from all over the country. Paul Pisasale, Ipswich mayor did breakfast with them.”I had breakfast with them this morning and they are in good spirits and we just have to make sure the impact of this hole doesn’t impact their mental health.”
Protection
Mayor said, “Lynn’s biggest asset and worry was the Hills clothes Hoist and that is going to be protected. The suburb has nothing to worry about, everything is safe, the McKays have just drawn the short straw. I am just pleased it wasn’t under their house.”
Paid By Mayor
Not only that, the mayor went on to pay their stay at the hotel. Though the couple had house insurance, it was not enough to cover the whole of it. “I have made arrangements for Ray and Lynn McKay to be in hotel accommodation overnight to make sure they have some peace of mind,” said Mayor Paul Pisasale.
Own Chair
O’Neill said, “Mums coping a bit better than dad and I think he would rest better sitting in his own chair watching TV.” They all begun to wait for the completion of the investigation.
The Area Had to Be Restricted
Before rolling out the full-fledged investigation, officers separated the house from rest by fencing it from all the sides. They started the work at their fastest pace as the MsKays could not get their house back until the investigation gets over. They were old and shaken by the incident. They needed some rest in their own house.
Work Started Fast
The team had a lot of things to do. They began pulling the water out of the pool. Once they were done with it, they had to fill a truck with the dirt taken from the hole.
Missing Home
Whereas the work was going on in its full swing at the house, McKays missed their home a lot. “I didn’t get any sleep, I was thinking about what was happening at home,” Lynn remarked. “They haven’t told us if it will get any bigger just that they want to pump the water out and fill it with gravel.” “It could be weeks before its back to normal. We haven’t really been given a timeframe,” Lynn said.
It Would Soon Be Over
After a month the hole was filled and the McKays were back in their home. The couple was very happy and soon started redecorating their backyard. They were not alone in their endeavor to come over their past, the entire town was with them. You may mistake it to be the end of their adventurous story but that was not. There was more to it.
Planning Maps
Mayor said, “We know which suburbs have got [mines] and if you look at all our planning maps for people buying residential property, everything is safe and it’s all recorded now online for everybody to see.” “And only 1% of Ipswich was ever mined.
Highest Industry
“The mining industry doesn’t even exist now, our highest industry is aerospace and technology. “So those days are gone. But history always shows you the past comes back to haunt you occasionally.”
Souvenir
The couple found themselves a souvenir of this tragic incident. Ray kept a piece of wood with herself that once was a part of the sinkhole. She kept it as it would remind them of this weird incident of their lives. Little did they know the incident was still on.
Again
Six months went by normally. They had given a beautiful look to their garden and everything seemed to be in place. But that did not remain for long as the ground quaked again. Their backyard was sinking again. But this time the reason was the heavy rain.
Not The First Time
McKays had to suffer a lot of unfortunate events. One of them occurred in 2011 when they had to say goodbye to all their belongings due to a flood. They saw their things weeping away in the water. Their story tugged to many strings and one of them was the mayor.
Christmas Gift
He was deeply moved by the couple sufferings and so he decided to do something special for the couple in the coming Christmas. However, little did they know, a few years after their backyard was going to cease to exist.
Hole In Backyard
Isn’t this story terrifying? What will you do if you see a hole in your backyard? We wonder how this old couple is doing now.
So, how do you like this story? We would love to hear from you.