The project began with composer Georges Lentz, who had a vision to create a sound experience within an old and expansive water tank that had been donated by the Cobar Shire Council.

Lentz approached iconic Australian architect Glenn Murcutt with the idea in 2016. The tank is iconic in its own right; it’s positioned high on a hill and visible for miles on the horizon, however, it needed architectural intervention to make the interior more hospitable and acoustically impressive.

Inside the cylindrical water tank is a square, concrete box with fluted internal walls. There is a path that leads you from the entrance to a small plinth to rest on. When you look up you see a gold-painted dome ceiling which is open to the sky.

Lentz’s composition is playing around the clock... It is a 24-hour-long piece of music! It was composed over many years of consideration and collaboration with The Noise String Quartet. The music is inspired by the paintings of Kathleen Petyarre, an artist who has a deep connection to the Australian desert and who beautifully captures land and sky. It’s these qualities the architecture also tries to capture and enhance.

Will you visit?