Anyone with Acreage - Come Say Hi

in Vic when we spoke to the plumber we were advised that we could not longer use a sprinkler system with the treated water and only sub surface irrigation. We have ag pipes for irrigation from our existing dwelling and after about year 1 it ceases to funciton clogs up, we put it all throughout the rose garden and you wouldnt know it they dont get any water from it. If I cant use the water how I want I am not paying to recycle it. I will get a grey water divert sytem and just put it onto the paddocks.

That's what I mean, decisions are made by people who are so far removed from the realities of life, yet we have to live with the consequences. I would send the bill for the ag pipes to your council. We will do the absolute minimum to get our cert of occupancy, get the FHBG, and then will simply do things the way we want them done, not the way the council thinks they should be done.

I guess we are in the unique (and lucky) position that we can pick and choose which council we go through, one of them being very reasonable and pragmatic. They realize that if they forced the locals to comply with regulations, half of them would sell up and leave.

I love grey water diverts too, and as long as you don't use detergents high in phosphorus, no harm done

That's ok, biggest thing I've ever built before is a sand castle, but it's all a huge adventure, good luck with yours!

Had house pegged yesterday,today trench to take utilities down our drive about 134m.
hopefully all that will be done by Friday,then I can have crushed rock spread over drive
for trucks[don't want them getting bogged] attached is elevations and floor plan
[img][IMG=http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8092/houseelevation.th.jpg][/img]
[img][IMG]http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/2160/houseplan2.th.jpg[/img][/img]
Pic of bricks I'm having Austral Newport
[img][IMG=http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/889/img2030800x533.jpg][/img]

We did the same thing, 300m driveway with large rocks underneath, then crushed rock on top. Also had to put in drains every 10 metres to avoid the rain washing the driveway away. Also put in a turning circle at the top.

However a concrete pumping truck decided to put concrete all over the driveway at the top, then drive through it while wet. So now there is corrugated ruts all over it - cars are likely to get scratched rims etc. Apparently its supposed to be cleaned up after the concreting has all finished. But I'm pretty annoyed about it. That and the concrete truck drove on top of a $300 drain and wrecked it, and drove through the pigtail and tape fence we had put up to stop trucks going off the driveway and getting bogged (clay soil).

That's so wrong That's why, I won't put down gravel until trench is backfilled
cookie I thought my drive was long,your cost must have been high
do you have your own thread

i think we might have one of the smallest on this thread at 2604sqm in the blue mountains. wont be building for 12mths + but its our little slice... we were just sick of looking at blocks in sydney for top dollar (im talking about $700/sqm +) so we decided to get something that we could let the kids run feral, but not that feral (we are city babys after all)

its almost unfathomable how much land people have here.. all credit to you for being able to maintain it all and well done dont get me wrong, i love being outside, but id rather be underneath a '69 'stang than elbow deep in soil and gardening

Hi

Where are you in the Blue Mountains?

We are living in Blackheath while building in Hartley

Paul

well we bought our block in Hazelbrook.. not developed yet (last time i checked which was about 2mths ago) we currently living with mum in castle hill until the block is developed and the house is built...

That's a coincidence - We used to live in Castle Hill before we moved up to the mountains!

Paul

Hi Everyone

We have 5 acres in Moore Park Beach, about 20 minutes out of Bundaberg, QLD.

We are building a dual living house for my family and for my parents at the moment. It's currently at frame stage with the roof on and the plumbing going in today.

We absolutely love our block especially since coming from the rat race of the Gold Coast...just hope that it's finished before Xmas!

The house is 88m from the front boundary and we are also planning a small orchard down the back of the block. It seems like such a big project at the moment but I know that it will be worth it at the end of the day. Plus we are planning on staying here for a while so it worth doing the hard yards!

Totally agree. I love seeing all the stars at night with no city lights to dim them. Love hearing the birds and not cars. Im planning a small orchard atm too. We should have planted them already. Slackness on my behalf

Bought about 100hectares/250acres near Mudgee, NSW. Hoping to build in about 2-3 years.

Hi we are a family of 5 and purchased 400 acres 15min outside Rockhampton Queensland in June 2011. We previously owned 2 1/2 acres and now live on 1 1/2 acres. We have only just started to build. Since our purchase we have had 2 fires. Second one was bad and completely burnt our 400 acres. Since then we have put up a 6 bay shed and had a dam built (approx 100 m x 100 m). There is a smaller one in the front. My husband has purchased a tractor (I call her the other woman because he spends more time with her then me lol) and a Polaris. (This is so much fun to get around in). We also have a motorbike and quad. So lots of farm toys. We are at present getting fencing repaired from the fire and will be running a few head of cattle. We have always wanted to own a bit of land. Was only looking at 100ac but found this one and fell in love. I have been stalking H1 for a while now and really enjoy reading about everyone's build. It's very addictive !!!!! Thank you

Hi,
We have been living on 1 acre for few years now and have loved having the large block but have always desired even more. After a few false starts we have bought 118 acres in coastal South Gippsland Victoria and are planning the build of our dream home there.

Wow there are some huge acreages out there.

We are currently on 3/4 but our build has recently started on 2 acres. AM hoping to do some reveg plantation on some of it, but have recently discovered there may be an issue with the planned placement of our septic. I'm not happy about that at all. Surely the builder should have realised and not put fill where we planned to put it??? Anyway we only have a slab as yet - it's supposed to be polished this week, so looks like I had better chase up the builder....

Saw some driveway woes. Ours is only about 140m, we went recycled concrete - large and plan to top that with some smaller stuff a bit later on. Just nice to be able to drive my car on there now

Hi, we will be building a house on 1/2 acre just out of Margaret river, just far enough for serenity and to raise our own vegies and chooks. We would have loved more land (enough for a horse or two) but sadly not in the budget. After reading your posts I have acre-envy!! In the past we owned a house on 2 3/4 acres, and it was a good size to manage all the garden ourselves although we left roughly 1 acre as natural bush.
The only drawback with our new block is the amount of huge terrible spiky bindys on it. It was previously cattle grazing. There are a few granite outcrops as well, sandy loam soil but more clay than soil. Once the house is built we were thinking of scraping off the block and getting good soil put down, but were told most of it would blow away. So after some local advice we will be using roundup, then getting wood chip spread all over and making raised beds with a mixture of cow poo and sand. We'll do the vegies in raised beds with mushroom mulch and good soil. We already have a vegie garden where we are and if you've never used mushroom mulch, it is MAGIC! for vegies.

We'll have a 150,000L water tank, our own aquifer plant as no septic, once it comes the unit will be converted to grey water for the garden. . .

our house is up to its second week of inside paint

to do:
roller doors
box in above triple sliding door into alfresco
air con

i have to retain, rainwater tank, drainage and do a relatively steeped driveway and water runoff myself (prob contractor for cement driveway)
not long now and hopefully should have keys around middle to late sept
then 8 or so weeks off work!!
you beauty

Just wanted to revive this thread as I found it very interesting
We have just purchased a 5 acre lot an hour south of Perth in a new Rural Residential development. We can have horses
I'm very excited to start planning- we want to have some chickens and ducks and one day I will get a horsey!!

We are lucky enough to have scheme water, three phase power and telephone line but missed out on sewage so we will need a Effluent Disposal System

Just planning the build/shed at the moment but because we want to live on the block whilst its being built its quite a challenge to get approvals from the shire.

Hi there,

Newbie here, so please bear with me if I'm not doing the right thing by posting this here.

My predicament is:

My house didn't pass final council approval due to there not being enough water storage on site for fire fighting purposes.

Some background:

My home is in a semi rural residental type area on the Sunshine Coast. No town water or sewerage.
Council requirements are (copied directly from MCU):

Section 4. ASSESSMENT MANAGER CONDITIONS
Condition 15. Bushfire Management
An on-site water supply available for fire fighting purposes must be provided, having a volume of not less than 20,000 litres. The water may be either:
(a) A separate tank
(b) A reserve section in the bottom part of the main water supply tank
(c) A swimming pool or dam installed immediately upon construction of the home.

Condition 21. Water Supply
The approved dwelling must be serviced with a rainwater tank having a minimum storage capacity of no less than 40,000 litres.

Section 8. ADVISORY NOTES
Point 5. Rural Water Storage
The 20,000 litres required by Condition 15 can be included within the water required in Condition 21 providing is accessible for the purposes of fire fighting at all times and not used for other domestic purposes.

• We currently have two 22,500 litre tanks on-site, satisfying Condition 21. (The builder was going to link these tanks together on Monday!)
• These tanks are currently separate and not joined in anyway, satisfying Condition 15 (a).
• Point 5 of the Advisory Notes clearly states that the fire fighting water requirement can be part of the water supply required for the house, so long as the fire fighting water is not used for domestic purposes.

Am I right in thinking that by keeping our two tanks separate, the water requirements of Condition 15 as per Point 5, is taken to be satisfied therefore we should be able to get final council approval?

The builder and certifier are saying that we need another 20,000 litres.