Maleny Living (Low res) http://malenyliving.blogspot.com/

The land - Our playground

The property adjoins the park on two sides offering endless bush walking

It took 12 long months of traveling between Byron Bay and Bundaburg, which included many of the Islands in Morton Bay, to find a piece of land that would give us the unique attributes we were looking for.

These included above all, total privacy and seclusion, but we also needed to be near an airport for my work and Kathryn wanted to be close enough to good restaurants for the occasional night out.

The kids wanted to be near the beach and nightlife.



The creek runs through the property most of the year














My Welsh relatives come from a small island, Bardsey Island off the north coast of Wales. A 20 acre farm was considered to be large and this would be given to the eldest son leaving everyone else to carve out a living fishing or looking after sheep on the mountain. So having the opportunity to play with 116 acres was beyond my wildest dreams when I was young.

The 3rd forest plan indicating the recommended stages




















I had no plan for the land when we arrived other than to clean it up by getting rid of the acres of lantana and mountains of old discarded pieces of timber that inhibited any tractor work.

We started on the hillside having a bulldozer rake the tree stumps and large timbers into 12 very large mounds that burned for a week. Three large swales or terraces were then constructed to slow up runoff from the torrential rainfall we get. This also has the effect of creating small springs making the hillside into a very large sponge for capturing the rainfall which judging by the wetness of the soil works very well.

These also act as access roads for tractors once a crop has been planted. An access road was then constructed around the hillside and a 2 inch irrigation pipe laid down underground. This was then extended all the way to the furtherest section of cleared land to provide a good backbone.

The water gets pumped up from the bottom dam, creek or bore to a holding tank which can gravity feed all parts of the land with what appears to be a limitless amount of water, although I have identified three dam sites should we need them.


The hillside was cleared for stage one and 3 large terraces built to capture the water










I have explored the feasibility of countless crops and growing seems to make the land economically sustainable using strict organic principles. These have ranged from organic edible bamboo shoots to medicinal herbs and have even considered fish farming.

The most viable was medicinal herbs but this required too much of my time which was becoming a scarce commodity over the last few years.

The bamboo grows very well but due to health & safety regulations we would have to install some expensive processing equipment which meant that we would have to produce on a large scale which I did not have the time for.

We planted 250 clumping bamboo plans which do not spread











We use the bamboo to keep some of the tracks in good shape











So I kept coming back to specialist timber, rain forest cabinet timbers on the wet regions and trees for pole house construction on the higher places and set about preparing the ground for future planting.

We have a planting and maintenance outline plan along with the recommended tree species developed by one of the country's leading experts. But I soon discovered that whilst we could get a license to plant trees no meaningful agreement could be obtained from either the State or Local Government that would guarantee the right to harvest them.

This has now been resolved by the Department of Natural Resources who will now offer licences that provide this assurance.

However it's taken about 18 months to get the first stage sorted out where the existing cleared areas have been mapped, verified and entered onto the state governments spatal system. The land now has a certificate defining the current areas and identifing what I can do on the other parts re forest farming.

This process was managed by Greening Australia who have also applied for a forestry licence to cover the whole property which will allow the tree management and planting of the whole property.

The property can now gain primary producer status with out having to run cattle on it Phew !!

Hillside ready for the planting of trees on stage 3











Greening Australia advised me to wait until a carbon credit brokerage has been established (later this year) before planting the trees so as to get the potential income factored in to the plan

The cleared part of stage 2 (green part on the map)













The uncleared land on stage 2 is currently getting the big weeds slashed leaving the few old rain forest trees.











The lantana had spread over this part of the property hiding the old rain forest trees

Uncleared stage 2












What the vegetable garden can look like when I don't have anything better to do

The second home - Kathryns office

Kathryn needed a building to run workshops for 20 people so we decided to build a proper Queenslander that could be used in the future as a separate dwelling.


Hard at work











This is when I realized how big it was









We built the home with its own 10,000 gallon water tank, solar hot water, septic tank and electricity.

A wide veranda for entertaining 20 people










We lived in here until the main house was finished providing very comfortable two bedroom home with shower bathroom, large kitchen - living area and a wide veranda for the best outdoor dining

The timbers are placed on underground concrete pillars










Both buildings were constructed by Eddie De Jong and his son Rod who, with a small army of contractors delighted and surprised us with their craftsmanship and attention to every detail. I was warned about nightmare building projects but our experience was exceptional where Eddie and Rod's standards were as high as our expectations.

It has two timber floors to provide stability










The large island breaks up the main room











Kathryn used the island as a workbench for workshops where she can demonstrate food preparation, juicing and cooking. The kitchen looks brand new as unlike me she is very delicate. luckily my main jobs are outside.


We created 3 terraces to hold water for fruit trees










The finished job









The main room











Solar heater on the roof










The french windows open out to great views










The water tank











Bathroom

The main house

Outdoor living is the go in Maleny





















We told Garry that we were primarily interested in a piece of land regardless of it having a house already built, on the basis that we wanted to build our own house to Kathryn's very exacting standards. We decided to buy the land before we even set foot in the house which was probably good as upon seeing it Kathryn said that she would never live in it and we had to pull it down.

The side view to the old entrance





















The new kitchen and outdoor living section








The new bathroom












But this turned out not to be an option due to the over specified concrete and steel. So we opted for a very expensive total rebuild tearing the roof off, ripping out the internal walls and stripping out everything down to the concrete floors on both levels. The total building came to 424.4 sqm













Kathryn designed all the windows using French windows opening out onto the new verandas wherever possible. The cost of the hand crafted red cedar frames were added to by the special color glass designed to fill the house with color.













New entrance looking through to view










The basic shape of the house remained the same but with the addition of the verandas, opening hall way, kitchen/dining and outdoor living area it looked and felt unrecognizable. We also rewired the the whole place laying new ducts to the main gate to get rid of the poles and laid network cables and a TV- satellite network - all of which was connected to the second house.






















We could not get true broadband here but the Government gave a grant and we now have a two way internet satellite with 1mb download and 1/2mb up link. It uses the newly launched IP Star digital satellite that has cut the delay down to 500 milliseconds so we can now make internet phone calls and use video conferencing.

Satellite on the roof










I have stuck up a Wi Fi antenna so I can get wireless internet connection to up to 1/4 mile. This means that I can use a skype service with free intercom to the house or anyone in the world who is connected to the internet via a laptop or the new mobile phones or palm's that have Wi-Fi - eat your heart out Telstra! We now download movies for $3.50 per rental.












Main bathroom









Wake up view in main bedroom










We took out the old toilet and created a second bathroom to serve the other two bedrooms and re-built the shower room and toilet downstairs which services the spare bedroom or for use with the swimming pool.

The original size










The roof came off









The old roof had to be lifted to get the angle for the verandas









The rest of the space downstairs was turned into a large laundry room and a workshop and storage space which extends for the rest of the home

The old laundry - can't think what Kathy was moaning about!









Better !!








We installed two wood burners that are very efficient in burning the old dead wood from the land that will last for many years to come. A bakers oven in the dining area and a absolute furness in the living room that can be closed down at night .

Tito has the top spot










The end result is a truly magnificent home that is strong, robust and elegant.



Second bedroom





















The second bathroom