bush block

2004 we bought 20 acres of bush. We learnt a bunch of stuff and had some fun.

The block log cabin.

April 2005

It was somthing that I was keen to do for the kids. Matt shared my vision and the results are great! The kids are going to make up some mud and block the holes in the walls. I hope to get some guttering along the back and collect the water into a little tank for them. Some log furniture is on the to-do list.....

As usual, click on the picture for a bigger version of the same thing.

Update 03/08/22 We bought it. Yeah, I know.....pretty "sad", but happy in a way. If nothing else, we have gone in with our eyes wide open!

A quick bit of background first ...... When we were newly weds we lived in our parents shed, it had (at that time) not much in the way of "power" (240 vac), no real running water (hot or cold) and a drum heater. It was all very nice for a weekend, but after a while it wore a bit thin, especially with Raelene. The experience sorta set her mind on never doing it again.

2 years after we moved out of the shed we were looking for a block to build on, but could not find anything that we felt comfortable with. We instead found a house with no power. After a lot of thinking and a bit of talking on my behalf we decided to go with it. The power ran past the front, but it was a 5000 dollar connection fee, not too many young married couples have a deposit on a house with an extra 5 grand kicking around....... so we bought 2 solar panels out of the trading post and hooked them up to a few batteries and moved in...... 6 years latter we wanted to move on, found that the cost to connect the power had dropped to 500 bucks, so we had the house rewired, hooked to the mains and sold up. We had learnt a lot, both how to live on alternate energy and how not to.

We have been reading the odd issue of "ReNew" and "Owner Builder" magazine and liked the idea of building our next home such that it worked with nature rather than the typical house approach these days. The magazines made it sound all very attractive, fairly easy and straight forward. We also wanted to go back to alternate energy with the approach that only experience can give you......

Unfortunately we ended up buying a house in town, half a block from the kids school. Well suited from that point, but pretty ordinary from an astronomy or a peace and quite point of view. We have been there just over a year and we are both a bit keen to move on again. We both desire a simpler way of living, one with less bills (that seem to do nothing other than feed "the system") and one that works with the environment (we are not talking about becoming "Greenies", neither of us think much of that way of life, what we are taking about is as simple as putting your house to face the north and put some windows on the north side. Thus when the sun rises, you get some benefit, rather than having to flick the switch on the wall and getting covered in dust from the central heating). We have been looking around for a block of land that we could afford now and look at building on once the kids have finished up school.

We found said block 3 weeks ago. 20 acres of bush. Perfect. And, we felt in our price range. The first hurdle we found was that in order to get the north looking aspect we desired a driveway to end all driveways was needed. So, with the sellers permission we were able to walk over the block and get a feel for it and a few days later we got a local earth moving company out to give us a quote. 25 grand! Oops, a little more than we would have liked, but not out of the question. We then went to the bank to see if it really was out of the question or not. Yep, the money was there, so we are still "Ok to go"! Next up was the local council to see about getting permission to put in the driveway and clear a house site. Well, because the drive way needed a dam we had to first get permission from the catchment management authority. They came up the next day and measured everything and a few days got back to us with the news that there was no problem from their point. Note, this inspection was free! Amazing service! Back to the council, they informed us that we would need an arbortor's report for the trees we needed to remove, this was 210 dollars. There also was no doubt that we would have to plant some trees to replace the ones that we had to take out for the drive and house. When I mentioned that it was a thick bush block and that there was no room to plant new trees, the council didn't care and said that if it was a real problem we could simply plant them somewhere else in the local area! Interesting approach..... Not all that unreasonable at this stage......

A day or so latter we went back to the council to pay our 210 bucks to get the tree man out, only to find out that first, since we had to remove "a" tree, we needed to get an environmental impact study done. There is only one company in Ballarat that does them, so off I went to see them. Their report was going to cost 800 dollars. Not only but also I had to get a soil test done for 500 dollars as well. When I quizzed the guy about this, he said it was to see if the block could take a septic tank. I said that we were going to put in a waterless dunny. He replied that it doesn't matter. The council will insist due to the fact that if we sell up and the people that buy the place don't like the waterless dunny and rip it out to put in a septic, I have to get the soil test done now to cover this future possibility. Ok, so what else did I need to have? "Well, we need the full house plans to take the house into account as part of the visual impact aspect of the report." said the guy. "But I don't have them yet, we wanted to take our time in the design stage." Bad luck it seems. They cant do the full report unless I have them, and if I chose to put in any old plans, then I would have to submit a new building permit when I start with the correct joint ..... and yes, because the new house looks different from the original plan I have to get a new impact study done, but that one will only cost 600 bucks, and yes, if its +/-10 meters in a different place from the first plan I have to get another soil test done. So, now we are up for about 800 to 1000 bucks to get some house plans drawn up fast! Eeerrrr, this is not what we wanted, we were really hoping to spend some 4 years in the design stage. You know, go to lots of different display homes and the odd building day to see what we liked and how we wanted to build it. We were thinking of straw bale and thus wanted to go to some of the building days to get an idea on whether or not we were actually able to build one ourselves. I wanted to take my time to design the power system, the kids wanted time to think about what they wanted and how it was going to fit in for them. We also wanted the time to develop the block before we built. Get the dam sorted and get a shed up, get the caravan out there so we could spend some time out there to get some idea of exactly how we even wanted the house to be sighted on the block. Lastly we wanted to take our time so that we could afford to build the house we wanted, not the house we had to have. Once you get the building permit, you have to start building within two years.

Remember, all this is to see if we can put in the driveway and one day build on said bush block! Woza. What an eye opener. The council fees were going to be about 1000 bucks. So we are up to about $3500 just to see if we can build a north facing house on a bush block that pretty much only has 4 wheel drive access, and if they say no, its all over, we have done our money. Thankfully the agent was really good and didn't hassle us to sign anything.

In conclusion. We learnt a great deal. I personally was very saddened by the state of "The System". It is so bound up in laws, by-laws, rules and regulations that its hard to breath. Pretty much everyone has their hand out to take our money, and ain't saying squat until they have our money in their pockets. I understand the need for rules. I am not against that. I also understand that time is money. I think that there is a great opening for a company or branch of the council that for a flat rate comes and inspects your site and proposal and gives some non binding feedback on what you propose. That's all we were after . "Can we put a driveway here and a house here?" Yes or No. Its not rocket science.

It has made me wonder about what I read in the likes of "ReNew" and "Owner Builder". How legal is a lot of what you see? Not very I am now thinking. No wonder people live in town where you can hear your neighbour take a pee. It's so easy. See the bank, sign the dotted line, pay your bills. It's a no brainer. It also keeps everyone under some control. You are bound to the power company, you are bound to the gas company, you are bound to the water company and so on.

Our dream of building an efficient home run on alternate energy is still safely a dream, locked up in our minds, untouchable by the council or impact studies! For the moment that's where it's going to stay. We will (maybe) continue the process of designing the house, but that's about it ..... for now......

24/3/03. Final Update. Well, in a last ditch effort to secure our dream, we went back to the council. Our thinking was that if we just put a drive way in and "nothing" else what would be the implications of that? Well, it seems that they are long and far reaching. Seems every time I go down there I get some more pieces of the puzzle. In some ways it would have been good to be told all this straight up, in some ways to be told all this in one hit would be so over powering that you would go away a broken person instead of just thoughtfully disappointed......

Anyway, it goes like this. Because the land is zoned "environmental rural" is makes things a little more interesting. Basically what happens is that the land, undeveloped, has a net value of 1. You put in a drive way (ie cut down 1 or more trees) and the net value goes down. You clear a house site, the net value goes down some more. You build a house, it goes down. The main purpose of the impact study is to work out a plan that will bring the net value of the land, not just back to one, but to greater than one. This is what the council is all about. Seeing that the land is better of as a result of my development then before. Hence all the replanting of trees. This is only part of the solution. This is why the impact study is so expensive, they have to spend a lot of time with the developer (me) to come up with a plan that results in the land having a higher net value at the end of a set time. So, it didn't change a thing, me wanting to buy it and do a drive way. That still reduces the net value, so everything has to be in place to assure the council that I had a plan in place to improve the land.

But it gets more interesting. If I did go ahead with the whole building thing, but then didn't build, and simply put in for an extension to the permit, then there is only a limited number of extensions that I can get. Why? Because the building laws are changing, all the time there are new ones coming in, I have to comply with those new ones. Sooner or latter I have to put in a new building permit and have the whole thing re-evaluated to the new regulations.

Lastly there was the fire protection. They agree that I have to protect my house from fire, so I am permitted to make changes to the house surrounds, but that will change the net value, so I have to have a plan to show what I am going to do to improve the land after I have made it safer for my family and home .... and then (if there was, which there wasn't) the last straw .... when you submit the house plans the council has to forward them onto the CFA. They then come and inspect the house and access. If they don't like the access (i.e. the council road out front) then its the home owners responsibility (and expense) to bring the road up to CFA standard. And its not just a case of saying, bad luck, I ain't going to do it, I will take my chances, the CFA then convey that back to the council and I am deigned my building permit.

So, that is about that. None of this is impossible, none of the people I spoke with said it couldn't be done, it was all just a matter of money.

.03/08/24 We had a bit of "fun" today.......

We took ownership of the block on Friday at 11:16am. Rang the neighbor and got permission to put the van in via his place. Johnny came down and towed it in, so that went really well. Then we decided we would make the track from the (future) house site at the top of the hill down to the bottom of the gully, then back up the other hill to the "main" road. This track then, would become our only access to the block. Well, while it was not raining, everything was going pretty much to plan.
Then, about 1/2 an hour after it started raining, we ran out of chain-saw fuel. That meant going back up the steep hill to the van and out the neighbors gate. Lucky Johnny has a electric winch..... We could not get the L300 up the same slope, so we left it there while we got the fuel and came back. We then started at the top of the hill near the road and worked our way back down to the gully. Somehow we drove the L300 most of the way up, then Johnny winched me the last little bit.
Whoa, what a "first" day. There is no way it going to be an all weather track. I am not sure what (if anything) to do about that. Anyway, here are the photos.

03/08/29 I took the day off work and we did a little more work......

What a shock we got when we came around the
corner and saw this tree across the "driveway". Woza, its a monster! I have would really like to leave it long and use it as a tower at the top of the hill, but I have no way of getting it up the hill. It must weigh a couple of ton!!!!
Luckily it is in the one spot where we are able to drive around it.

Once we got past the fallen tree, we got up to the van pretty easily. Once there I busied myself with
leveling it. Freddy got busy making a fire pit and
collecting fire wood. There is so much fallen small
stuff, it going to take years to pick it up!

This is a pretty typical Freddy wood stack.
A little messier than normal, but its not the
"official" house wood stack, so you can forgive her
this time ;-)

Freddy and I only just got out in the morning, so we
drove into town to pick up a few things, including a
set of snow chains. They make far less mess of the
driveway than spining wheels and you can drive
much slower. They still don't make it an all weather
driveway, but at least now we can go in and out after
a few dry days and are doing less damage each time.
They are self adjusting, so fit very quick and easy.

Here is Terry and the van all nice and level. It makes a big difference. The kids (and Freddy) really like have somewhere to go once they get out the block, so its a great asset. We are slowly getting it fit out, some sort of running water is becoming a priority.... Hopefully some time this summer (after fot) we will have our first overnighter......

This is the view though the trees. Use your imagination! It is a bit easier to see when you are standing there, you can move your head around and sort of build up a mental image of what it will be like. We are allowed to clear a house site, so when we do this, because its on a hill we will automatically gain some great views.

I am pretty keen to get some sort of tower up so I can put a wind speed device up and start building up a wind profile for the site. I am thinking we may be better off spending some money on a proper wind generator (Bergy XL-1?) rather than going all solar....just a thought.....

10th Nov 2003 NJH encouraged me to go and take some photos of some of the (pretty) things growing on the block. I'm glad that he did, I thought I had seen most of what was on there, but when you really stop and look there is a lot more. So much so that you get to the point of your almost afraid to walk on the ground for fear of squashing something pretty. I have also learnt this afternoon, that I have a lot to learn about plants.......