On the highway between Melbourne and Adelaide, an abandoned pyramid houses probably the strangest art ever produced in Australia.
The town of Stawell was once home to a theme park featuring miniature replicas of renowned landmarks, including a pyramid.
But displayed deep inside the pyramid was something uncanny — a collection of sculptures made from human teeth and dentures.
With its large glass cabinets and unsettling aura, Norma Cosson says the pyramid was a perfect place to display the dental art.
"Lots of little kids didn't like going in there because it was quite dark."
'Services to recycling'
Ms Cosson purchased the now-closed tourist park in the 1980s with her late husband David Lye, a dentist, jeweller, and creator of the surprising sculptures.
Speaking to The Age in 2000, Dr Lye said: "As I was getting towards the end of my dentistry career, I noticed I had a lot of materials left over."
So, he set about creating sculptures from dental materials and what he estimated was more than 18,000 false teeth.
The Age would later salute Dr Lye for his "services to recycling".
Dr Lye, who according to Ms Cosson was known to drive around the Western District in a Mercedes-Benz with a large fibreglass tooth in the place of the car's badge, enjoyed repurposing the things he collected - including people's teeth.
'If he pulled [teeth] out and they didn't want to take them, they'd be cleaned up at the end of the day... and he'd put them in a box," Ms Cosson said.
A unique collection
But the inspiration behind some of the sculptures was personal and included real human teeth.
Ms Cosson's daughter Samantha McIntosh said her stepfather transformed a difficult time for the family into art.
When her young son was diagnosed with leukaemia and began losing his teeth, he would send his teeth to Dr Lye to be turned into a 'tooth fairy castle'.
"Instead of the kids being worried, he was trying to make it fun," Ms McIntosh said.
When the couple acquired the tourist park, which they named Caspers World in Miniature, the pyramid was already there. It had been built some years earlier as the town's information centre, Ms Cosson said.
Over the years they added exhibits, a restaurant, and eventually the jewellery and sculptures Dr Lye produced.
Nephew of famed New Zealand born artist and filmmaker Len Lye, Ms Cosson says her husband's family were lovable oddballs and David was no different.
She raises her hands in the air and smiles, thinking of the joy his eccentricities brought to those around him.
"He was always busy... he was just interested in life," she said.
There are more than one hundred teeth sculptures, Ms Cosson estimates, each with a story behind its creation.
They will most likely outlive us all.
Teeth are made of calcium phosphate, Dr Jeremy Sternson, President of the Australian Dental Association of Victoria says, which means they don't break down easily.
Normally, dentists dispose of teeth via infection waste bins which are incinerated, and Dr Sternson said he had not come across much dentalogical art.
'Love them or hate them'
Today, Ms Cosson still owns the property, and the pyramid still stands, but Caspers World in Miniature tourist park is closed.
But for those who stumble across mementos, the teeth continue to intrigue.
"Some people thought it was horrific, because they're teeth," Ms Cosson said.
"But some people though it was really clever."
When asked if Dr Lye minded people's reactions to the sculptures, Ms Cosson said she didn't think so.
Speaking to Ballarat's Courier newspaper in 2004, several years before he passed away, Dr Lye said people always had a strong reaction to the teeth sculptures.
"They either love them or they hate them," he said.
