A growing sinkhole has appeared in the back garden of an elderly Australian couple, who lost everything in the 2011 Queensland floods.
On Tuesday morning, Ray and Lynn McKay woke to discover a large sinkhole had formed overnight in the garden of their home in the city of Ipswich. It currently measures 10 meters in diameter but is continuing to grow, swallowing up their garden as it widens.
“We have all been outside watching it all day and it has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” Lynn said. “It is terrible, we just don't know what to think – we have had a lot of people looking and seeing what they are going to do.”
The couple called Queensland Urban Utilities, as they assumed it was a result of pipe works or underground water, the Brisbane Times reports. Utilities staff inspected the hole and found it wasn’t related to pipes.
According to Mayor Paul Pisasale, a mine shaft was once placed there in 1903.
“It looks like the way they have filled in the mine with timber and other things, it looks like it has rotted over the years,” he said. “They expect it to get bigger and bigger but they can't predict it.”
Pisasale said arrangements had been made for the McKays to stay at a hotel so they can have “some peace of mind.”
“Until we know they are going to be safe they won’t be staying here,” Pisasale added.
The council is said to be monitoring the hole, and the Department of Mines and Energy is going to share detailed maps of the area.
"They said it could be a couple of days or it could be until the weekend, we don't know until they assess it a bit more,” Lynn explained. "We are coping well. We are just going with the flow."
The couple, who have lived at their home for 25 years, lost everything in the floods that struck Queensland in 2011, so they are no strangers to upheaval.
“Even up until today, we look for things and we think, ‘Oh, it must have gone in the floods,’” Lynn said.