A WOODWARD Road resident believes a long-buried part of Orange's past might be the reason behind a sinkhole in Markham Avenue.
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A Markham Avenue resident woke last Wednesday morning to find a 30-centimetre sinkhole in her front yard, which later grew to about two metres across and more than two metres deep.
Orange City Council ruled out council water or sewer pipes as the cause, while engineers are still investigating on behalf of the resident's insurer.
However, Woodward Road resident Charlie Smith believed the culprit could be a decommissioned well.
“In the old part of Orange, five out of 10 houses had wells and when the pan system of the old toilets finished, they put septics in,” he said.
“Because the septics leaked, they couldn't drink the water and they became garbage tips.”
Mr Smith suspected many wells were not filled in properly.
“People chucked anything into them and over the years, they've all fallen in,” he said.
“I've dug out that many bottles and steel and I know a bloke who dug up a kid's tricycle out of his.”
Mr Smith said he had needed to fill the hole in his backyard on a couple of occasions during the 45 years he had lived there.
“It's just when it gets wet like that, it's wet to the sub soil, but it's not like a sinkhole overseas that swallows houses,” he said.
Orange City Council spokesman Nick Redmond said town water had been in place for more than a century and septic tanks became a thing of the past 70 years ago.
But he said it was possible old wells could remain across Orange's older areas and he knew of one in March Street.
“Orange is pretty good for groundwater and that's effectively what they are,” he said.
Mr Redmond said while responsibility for dealing with wells fell with individual landowners, they were welcome to contact the council for advice.
“Absolutely people can give us a call and let us know what they find and there's people here who can give assistance for that,” he said.