AN IPSWICH couple who have watched their back yard be swallowed by a giant sinkhole are still uncertain about when they will be able to return to their home.

Lynn McKay said her and her husband Ray struggled to sleep last night for worrying about how large the sinkhole had grown.

“I didn’t get any sleep, I was thinking about what was happening at home,” Mrs McKay said.

“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.”

Mr McKay said even though they have been forced to endure a sinkhole and lost most of their possessions in the 2011 floods they would never sell their home.

The couples daughter Tracey O’Neill first heard about the sinkhole on Facebook and drove from Toowoomba to check on her parents.

“I called Mum after seeing a big hole in their yard and she said ‘can’t talk we’re leaving the house’,” Ms O’Neill said.

“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.”

Ms O’Neill said the Ipswich city council and residents had been great but thinks her parents will be better when they can stay at home again.

“It’s a bit of a waiting game but I think that as long as they are back in there own house they will be happy,” she said.

“Mums coping a bit better than dad and I think he would rest better sitting in his own chair watching TV.”

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale gives update on sinkhole in backyard Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale gives update on sinkhole in backyard

Next-door neighbor Ken Morton said the sink hole has grown overnight.

“I think it’s grown another two metres all around since I last saw it yesterday,” he said.

“I don’t believe it will grow any bigger than it is now. It has been quite a shock and spectacle so far.”

OVERNIGHT: A MINE shaft has transformed an Ipswich couple’s backyard into a swimming pool in the form of a 10-metre wide sinkhole.

Ray and Lynn McKay, who have lived in the Basin Pocket home for 25 years, woke on Tuesday to find the sinkhole in their backyard.

They said it tripled in size ­within a few hours.

“We got up at half past nine and the bloke next door was watering his tomatoes – we only realised it was there when he asked me if I realised I had a hole in my backyard,” Mr McKay said.

The couple lost everything when the 2011 floods inundated their Coal St home and are now hoping the sinkhole has ceased expanding.

“This is just as challenging (as the floods) for us, we’re lucky that we have some wonderful neighbours that are looking after us,” Mrs McKay said.

Council engineers on site said initial investigations indicated a 100-year-old vertical mine shaft that was about 60m deep had caused the hole.

Sinkhole opens up in backyard Sinkhole opens up in backyard

EARLIER: Sinkhole swallows backyard

AN elderly couple should not fear their house, west of Brisbane, will be swallowed by a sinkhole after their backyard started to cave in down a century-old mine shaft.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale has assured owners Lyn and Ray McKay their house will not disappear overnight and engineers are confident of fixing the “sinkhole” which is some six to eight metres in diameter and full of water.

“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,” Mr Pisasale told AAP.

Mr Pisasale visited the Coal St home in Basin Pocket on Tuesday where he met with local engineers as well as Lyn and Reg McKay.

The couple has been given temporary accommodation for the evening while engineers wait for the sinkhole to stabilise.

“It’s an exploratory shaft that was put in anywhere between 1903 and 1920,” Mr Pisasale said.

“You can see this shaft was full up with rubbish and bottles and whoever did it (filled it), didn’t follow very good practices.

“We will take all the steps to get Lyn and Ray back in their house. It’s the mines department’s responsibility.”

He said this is an old part of Ipswich and the mine was about 40 metres from where it had been originally marked on the council’s town planning maps.

EARLIER: INCREDIBLE vision has emerged of the moment a backyard disappeared into a sinkhole.

media_camera The sinkhole at Ipswich. Pic: Mark Cranitch

The incident occurred at Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Tuesday morning.

Channel Nine captured the moment large portions of the ground fell into a torrent of rushing brown water.

The Queensland Times reported the property belonged to pensioners Lynn and Ray McKay, who were alerted to the sinkhole by a neighbour.

The large circular sinkhole appeared in the middle of the couple’s backyard, near their hills hoist clothesline.

Neighbour Lee Preston told The Courier-Mail the sinkhole had increased from about 1m in size to about 6-8m in half a day.

“It’s still growing,” she said.

Ms Preston said it was likely caused by underground mines, rather than storm water or sewerage drains.

“This is an older area so it’s full of underground mines,” she said.

The neighbour - who was at the McKay’s Coal St home in Basin Pocket making sandwiches on Tuesday afternoon - said she understood mining experts would make their way to the home later in the day.

“There’s nothing happening at the moment, just people standing around looking,” she said.

Ms Preston said the McKay’s would stay elsewhere overnight to keep them safe.

“They are elderly people,” she said.