Major update

Nearly 5 months since our last entry and in that time we’ve done heaps; toured Tassie, inspected about 25 properties, bought one, got a dog, swapped the Prado for a Nissan, and given our new home a complete makeover!

So, let’s start when we arrived in the apple isle.  We booked into the caravan park in Devonport after an overnight crossing on the Spirit of Tasmania from Melbourne.  We spent nearly a week looking at properties in the northern half of the State and kind of fell in love with the northwest coast; an area not dissimilar to the coast of southern England and five minutes inland you feel you’re in the Bega Valley with its dairy and beef industry.

Photos of the northwest coast from Wynyard to Stanley:

We had used the internet to identify around 2 dozen properties that might suit us as a retirement home; and a base of operations for travelling the rest of Australia (summer in Tassie, winter in the north).  Our initial intent was to spend summer in Tassie and while touring, inspect the properties we had identified.  Initially, we didn’t really intend to purchase right away, more of a recon than anything else; but this country just grows on you and a couple of properties stood out – right time, right place, great value, etc.

I think Mount Hicks was the third property we inspected; and fell in love with straight away.  The nearby villages of Somerset, Wynyard and Yolla were also very appealing and the people, just good old country folk who would give you the shirts off their backs.  It has a population of around 430 spread around a handful of dairy and beef properties; with our 1 ½ acres smack in the middle.  But, we’ll come back to our new home shortly.

We had also identified a dozen properties in the Huon Valley south of Hobart, so we headed off to the southern parts of the state.  We booked into a little caravan park in Huonville and made it our base for exploring the southern peninsular.

You know, everywhere you go you hear stories about north versus south: the silvertails in north Sydney and the blue collars in the south; Tassie is the same, Cascade in the south, Boags in the north.  And the people are the same; southerners are, well southerners, and northerners are really great people . . .  What can I say, we settled in the north where I can wear my R M Williams boots and Akubra in comfort.

The Huon Valley is green, I mean really green.  We spent about a week looking at properties in the area and although some were pretty nice, none stacked up against Mount Hicks – the weather is a bit more temperate in the North West as well.  We had a really good look around whilst we were there.  It’s really beautiful around Huonville, Franklin and Cygnet with a lot to see and do.  We took a trip into Hobart to Salamanca Markets and had a great time.  Also had lunch with Peter and Beryl, parents of our Canberra friend Kevin – what lovely welcoming people they are!

Oh, did I mention, we don’t have mountains in Tassie, we have Tiers; and creeks are called rivulets; and Australia is called The Big Island; and Tassie is called Tasmania, because we are.

We headed back north to have another look at the Mount Hicks property and also a couple of others we had recently spotted on Domain.com.  This time, we booked into the caravan park in Wynyard.  It didn’t take long before we were in serious discussions with Mr Hooker and the owners of the Mount Hicks property.

The owners wanted to move closer to their grandkids in north Queensland and needed a quick sale before Christmas.  Would you believe that they had moved here from Bateman’s Bay 4 years ago!!I think we were lucky, the property had been on the market for nearly 2 months and no one had looked at it – nothing moves very fast here including real estate.  We made an offer and it was accepted.  We settled 6 weeks later and moved in just before Christmas – would you believe our furniture which had been in storage in Canberra, arrived on Christmas Eve!  Thank goodness our new neighbours bought us over some goodies to keep us going.

So, during the 6 weeks whilst waiting on settlement, we made ourselves known in town.  It’s a bit eerie, but nearly everyone we met already knew who we were.  Strangers in town, especially with ACT number plates, get noticed quickly; especially when our Mr Hooker is the president of the cricket team, football team, bowls, cake baking, and many other organisations.  Well, not quite, but close – and a really nice guy as well.

So, this is what the house looked like when we moved in and after the work:

The back of the house where we thought we might plant our veggie patch; and after, with new fencing, veggie patch and chook shed.

The front veranda, and after, complete with lattice.

Our view from the veranda down the valley (and our 2 goats).

Our noisy bush chooks.

Bill and Ben – both expert escape artists.

In the last 3 months we have: demolished the chook shed and built a new one; erected about 100m of rural fencing; dug two 9m x 2m raised veggie gardens; felled 5 trees and cut them up for firewood; laid 150m of poly pipe and connected a 14,000lt water tank; connected a 6.5hp firefighting pump on the river bank and joined the irrigation network for our veggie patch.

New water tank.

 The new truck (and dog).  Forgot to mention, a local guy rang and asked if he could ‘swap’ his 2009 Nissan Patrol for our 2006 Prado!  The Patrol had 124k compared to our 240k and was in pristine condition; hadn’t even been off road!  So we swapped for the weekend, gave her a good going over, and engaged 4x4 over some local dirt.  A very neat truck!  So Monday morning we exchanged rego papers and here she is; all ready for the DOG!

Introducing Tasha; she’s a border collie, now 12 weeks old . . . and sooo cute . . .

 Here’s a couple of shots of the new chook shed:

‘Nigel’ showing he’s top cock!

People here have been really friendly and helpful with one neighbour helping us to install the new water tank and get all the associated pumps and plumbing working and others stopping by for a chat and offering advice and help.  Very nice sense of community!!!  Even the neighbour who has his own still and makes his own bourbon and vodka!!!!

Most of the hard work is done now – we planted our first lot of veggies yesterday and it very generously rained lightly all morning today!!  We’re looking forward to reaping the rewards of our hard work if we can keep the birds, bush chooks, pademelons and possums and quolls and devils out!!!  (forgot the tiger snakes!)

At this stage, this will probably be our last blog entry.  We will start a new one when we get back on the road, but in the interim we’ll stay in touch via email.  Hope you all have enjoyed following our adventures, stay tuned . . . . . .