Narrow paths wind between lush garden beds, water splashes over mosaic fountains and colourful sculpted benches are tucked away in shady, serene corners.
For owner Irene Pearce, it is a place of healing.
Known as Tickle Tank, Irene’s garden may well be the best known private garden at Mt Barker.
It’s a gallery of nature and art, stretching out around Irene’s home – an old concrete water tank that has been transformed into an eclectic and unique space that exudes the creativity of its owner.
Irene bought the property in 1998 when it was nothing but a grassy lot dominated by the tank and, at the time, it represented new beginnings.
“I was in my mid-50s and my partner and I separated and we sold our family home and I had to start again,” she says.
“… So at that time of my life I just had to find a home that I could afford.
“I saw a water tank and I thought ‘I could put some windows and a door in there and I could live in there’ … so I bought it quite cheaply actually, because no one wanted it.”
‘What was once the original tank is now the principal room of the house, comprising a kitchen, living space, dining area and children’s play loft.’
Irene designed the home herself, bringing in three more smaller tanks – converting one into a bathroom, another into a second bedroom and the third into an external studio – and overseeing construction of another cylindrical room on top of the original tank, creating a master suite.
She did much of the labour herself, throwing herself into the project to escape the grief that, at times, was overwhelming.
“A month after we separated we lost one of our children,” she says.
“It was really quite traumatic, I think, for me, and so building this house kind of put me back together.
“So I cried a lot, but I worked a lot too.
“… I’d get up in the morning and I’d just go, go, go, go until I was just totally exhausted and then the next day the same: go, go, go, go.





“And eventually I saw the blue sky again and blossoms on the trees … the colour went out of everything for quite a while and then it all sort of came back to me and I think I healed myself by building my home for myself.”
What was once the original tank is now the principal room of the house, comprising a kitchen, living space, dining area and children’s play loft.
It’s flooded with natural light from glass doors and small stained glass windows scattered across one side, which represent the sunlight dancing on the water through holes in the original tank roof.
“On settlement day … I started climbing down the ladder on the inside (of the tank) and the treads had rusted off and I fell in,” Irene recalls.
“My friend was on the outside … and she came in and we had a swim.
“But what was so beautiful was the shafts of light came through the holes in the roof and made all these rainbow patterns in the water and I put all those colours up there (in the windows) to remind me of the magic.”
Irene says the whole project was “staggeringly” cheap – in part thanks to her knack for recycling and creativity.
‘… I built furniture, I built the lounge, and around the fire and the cupboard. all of that is actually sculpted in.’
“All the doors and windows – most of them are recycled,” she says.
“… I bought (the stairs) recycled and my son and
I put the stairs in and I put in windows and the doors … I built furniture, I built the lounge and around the fire and the cupboard, all of that is actually sculpted in.”
Like her home, the garden around the house was designed to be a low maintenance, nurturing place.
“The vision was that I need to nurture myself – take care of myself,” Irene says.
“This whole place is about me, not what the neighbours see … so the garden is about what I can see from indoors when I look out.
“It’s about what gives me pleasure and joy and what makes me feel good.
“… I wanted things that were really tough and hardy, I wanted a garden that would look after me, I didn’t want to look after it.”





The garden, like the house, is also full of artwork – all crafted by Irene – including a large mosaic of white wisteria that covers one part of the external wall of the main tank, several mosaic sculpted benches, bird baths and water features.
In one corner of the garden a tiny shed provides a cosy place where children who visit can sit and draw.
While the garden and the home were designed very much with herself in mind, Irene loves welcoming others into her sanctuary and has seen thousands of people come through over the past 20 years.
This year in October, she marked her 20th Open Garden as part of the Open Garden Scheme.
“Year after year people keep coming,” she says.
“… As the years have gone by, it makes me feel good that it gives people a lot of pleasure.”