Organic Lifestyle - In beautiful Tasmania

60 acres on two titles, near Sheffield in Northwestern Tasmania, designer four bedroom house, cottage, many extra features , $175,000

If you’re looking for a home on the land with awe inspiring mountain views, pure water that won’t quit, rich soil, plenty of beautiful bush, a well-designed four bedroom home, established bountiful mixed orchards and gardens, this may well be for you. On nearly sixty acres and two titles, this one also has a cottage for rental or a farm manager, a workshop with three phase power that was last used as a licensed commercial kitchen, hothouses and outbuildings, a river running through, a swimming dam and even council permission for a crafts and produce stall.

A rural lifestyle is more than just living on the land. The Sheffield area is a booming tourism area with a really wonderful alternative community, the natural beauty has drawn residents from over a dozen countries, it was the first town in Tassie to have a recycling centre, a LETSystem, a women’s crafts cooperative, there is a warm women’s group, landcare and waterwatch, a support network for parents and children who chose to homeschool, a good wholefoods shop, and the long-term locals are generally open and most helpful. We are only twelve minutes from town, easy to find on a main road, the school bus stops at the driveway, but built far enough back for complete privacy where the only sounds are the birds and river. Security is such that few people around here even lock their doors!

The Main House

The main house is two story with double brick downstairs and timber upstairs. It was designed to take full advantage of the spectacular views of the mountains and valley. You enter from the carport with a large workshop on your left. There is a stained glass window to the left of the front door. When you walk in the front door, the kitchen is immediately to your right, the slate entry hall brings you to the conservatory (north-facing built-in hot-house) with bearing lime orange and lemon trees and grapevines, herbs, tomatoes, flowers and exotic species.

To your right is the living room with sunken conversation pit and open fireplace, stained glass windows in the feature wall and 180 degree mountain views. Sliding glass doors from the dining room lead to the outside picnic/ barbecue area. The dining room and kitchen adjoin in an open plan design that permits the best of a large country kitchen, with a pine and myrtle buffet and divider shelf. The cook or dishwasher can have full access to family and company, or watch TV, or supervise children swimming in the dam all from the kitchen. An assortment of bench heights were designed to eliminate the backache of bending unnecessarily. The kitchen, designed by and for the cook has a double sink, gas cooker with fan-forced oven, cherry wood cabinetry and a generous pantry.

To the left of the entry hall, with its coat closet and storage under the stairs, is the den or games room with slow combustion fireplace. All carpets are pure wool. Walls are pine paneled or brick. On the left is the toilet with hand basin and a separate bathroom/laundry. Straight ahead are two spacious childrens rooms separated by divider, bulletin boards, black boards, drawers, wardrobe and bookshelves.

Up the myrtle stairway, you come to the huge master bedroom with mountain views, built-ins, and ensuite with leadlight panels in the doors. Also upstairs is the fourth bedroom which we have used as computer and music room. It has the best views in the house. The main house has solar water heating, boosted by the slow combustion stove and electricity. We are connected to Tassie’s hydroelectric grid and there are ample power points throughout and overhead fans in the lounge/dining area and master bedroom.

The front title

Located on a main road to Cradle Mountain and the west coast, the farm is 12 minutes from Sheffield, 30 minutes from Devonport and an hour and 15 minutes from Launceston or Burnie. On the front title and visible from the road is the factory, originally built for making tofu on a commercial basis. It has the washable surfaces required for a commercial kitchen, three phase power, a refrigerator room and a toilet and shower room. It would be suitable for a woodworkshop or dehydrating organic produce.

The original cottage is simple semi-open plan built of mudbrick, with the living and sleeping areas separated by the bathroom/laundry. It could be rented out or used for self-contained holiday accommodation. It is 5 by ten metres with a carport. It has a kitchenette with gas stove and oven, fridge, slow-combustion barrel heater. It is several hundred metres from the main house, so complete privacy is not a problem.

The main orchard and vegetable gardens with rabbit proof fencing are on the front title. Our own source of unpolluted water is gravity fed to it from the back title. All buildings also have filtered rainwater for drinking, though the dam water is quite safe. There is a mixture of mature trees bearing several varieties of apples, pears, peaches, cherries, nashis, plums, hazelnuts, and almonds. The chestnut trees are bearing. The berry fruits include a hothouse full of strawberries, prolific during all warmer months, metres of raspberries, currants and several kinds of blackberries. A good stand of perennial asparagus is established and over fifty varieties of cultivated culinary and medicinal herbs have been planted throughout the property. Besides the strawberry hothouse, there is a vegetable hot house full of tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, pumpkins and other frost tender species. Most of the farm’s cleared 20 acres are on the front title. There are general and milking sheds. Nature strips along the property boundaries and the river have been fenced to protect them from stock. Further fencing can be organized according to future owners’ requirements. The property has been managed completely by organic methods for the past 11 years and was only minimally developed grazing land prior to that. I would not sell to people wanting to poison or pollute the land with toxic chemicals.

The Back Title

The road through the front title to the back title has been surveyed to permit access to the back title should anyone want to sell off a title at some future date, but the farms works so much better as a whole that I am offering it as it is. The bushland on the back hill provides the catchment and elevation for the gravity fed water supply, pumped as needed by an electric pump. The bush is such a wonderful place to wander, with treeferns, blackwoods, wattle and gum trees. Occasional dead trees provide all the firewood one could possibly need without needing to cut living trees. The wildlife keep us in touch with the original occupants of this land. There are roses, daffodils and jonquils planted throughout the property and the wildlife generally leave them alone. This balance of open land and bush seem just excellent. The front title has a gravelly area and rich riverflat soils, the back title has more clay so a variety of species can be planted to take advantage of different soil types, slopes and proximity to water. A creek winds around the hill with the main house near it. The back hill goes from river flats at around 250 metres altitude to over 400 meters at the top. A track has been established on the back hill with identification of various species by a visiting botanist. The views from here are wonderful.

Interested?

If you are seriously interested in inspecting the property or require more information, please phone me, Trishala Shub on: (03) 62 664536 or (03) 64 911663 or email me at : trishala@southcom.com.au

We have moved closer to Hobart so my son could start in his new school, so the farm could be vacated for immediate occupancy by the purchasers in a matter of days. We are generally on the farm on weekends and school holidays, but are willing to drive up to show the property to any seriously interested persons by arrangement at any time. The price we are asking would not begin to replace what has been invested in the farm, but it has been a great privilege to have lived here.