This underground wine cellar and man cave testimonial were just too good to pass up. We hope you enjoy reading about this utterly unique project.
The shed is intended to be a working shed with tools, work bench and the like for Neil and his projects. We intend to put our pool table in the shed also so that the shed can become the centre of many social gatherings. Formerly, we have been using the space underneath of our house for this purpose but we have plans to reallocate the space under our house to increase the living area in the house.
So, we wanted more space but also wanted the aesthetic of an old style wooden shed in the backyard. The intention was always to create a shed using traditional building methods and materials compatible with the original architecture of the house. We didn’t want it to look like a new shed so we chose old style fittings and materials wherever we could.
We named the shed ‘Quamby’. Quamby is a small town north of Cloncurry in North West Queensland. Neil grew up in Mt Isa; on a trip back home Neil, his father and I went for a day trip that took us to Kajabbi and Quamby. Neil’s father has named his shed (in Howlong, NSW) ‘Kajabbi’, so Neil decided to name ours ‘Quamby’ as an homage to that trip and to the region that he grew up in.
The cellar is a reflection of another love of ours: wine. We have travelled through France and visited many wineries and seen their cellars, some of them hundreds of years old and accessed through trap doors in the floor which then open up into a labyrinth below with rows of wine covered in dust. We have always wanted to recreate that experience back home, not just to store our modest collection of wine, but to create a space to enjoy the aesthetic of and experience of subterranean wine consumption. (Ideally it would have been great to put it underneath our house, but as that is all done and the slab already built, we needed to find another location.) We plan to put a long table down there for sharing food and wine with friends in the dim light with racks full of wine lining the walls, and an old wine barrel in the corner. It will be a place for socialising and reminiscing about our time in France. It will also be a place for us to remember a good friend (and fellow wine lover) who succumbed to cancer 3 years ago. His photo will hang on the wall of the cellar in much the same way as the portrait of the Queen is found in Government buildings.
We are very social people and enjoy sharing food and wine with friends. Quamby will be an extension of that and a means by which we can enjoy the practical benefits of a working shed as well as an interesting place to sit and ponder; with wine in the cellar, or with beer on the patio.
For more information