What is living in Tassie like?

[ptrott]

I have always found the Woodies Forum members to be a fantastic source of an incredibly eclectic range of knowledge, and a very helpful bunch of people so I thought I might try for some help that is trully "nothing at all to do with woodwork".

Hopefully there are a good number of members living or who have lived in Tassie.

My wife & I are thinking very seriously about moving to Tasmania, & have been looking on the internet at areas mainly around Central Tasmania, at altitudes of 400 metres or more.
Our main reason for this move is that we are finding the long hot summers in W.A. more difficult to deal with as we get older, and the Tassie climate is so much cooler and more temperate.
We have been living on a small acreage in W.A. and would like to do the same over there, 3 to 30 acres, mostly natural bush hopefully.

We would like to hear from anyone with knowledge of the central highlands area or thereabouts, particularly but not only the Loongana area.
Things like water quality, ground water availability and depth / drilling costs, soil types, cost of having power put on if it is some distance away (horrendously expensive in W.A.), are wetter areas full of mosquitos, are building costs a lot higher in semi-remote areas, are local authorities likely to allow shed dwelling or caravan dwelling whilst building or for longer periods, is firewood allowed to be collected freely in the bush,
are solar panels viable with the cooler climate and less sunny days, are land rates (council rates?) particularly high, and anything else that you may consider "good to know" stuff.

We would particularly like to hear from anyone who has bought real estate both in W.A. and Tasmania, who can point out the differences in state regulations, settlement requirements etc. especially pertaining to rural / semi rural properties, state taxes etc.

We look forward to any and all input because no matter how "common knowledge" it may seem to you who live / lived there, it is probably news to us and therefor very useful info.

Cheers,
Phill & Geraldine.

[Ashore]

What is living in Tassie like?


1975

[dazzler]

Hi Phil and Geraldine

We have just moved back to tas permanantly after transferring here with work twice before. Most wonderful place to live and I am sure if we could get a big enough tug boat we would drag the island further from the nth one.

The people are generally great and very friendly. There is a good sense of community and helping each other out. Cant talk highly enough about how great it is.

Buying property is a bit wierd. You make an offer on a contract and it goes between the parties until they are both happy and its a done deal, no waiting for exchange. We bought and moved in in 19days .

They love buyers who are ready to go with finance and thier property sold. Seems like a lot of people go house shopping pending selling thier house, getting finance and lots of other wierd things that hold up the sale. Having no issues can get you a lot off the place so you can make an offer on the contract that is way below what they want but have a clause that it needs to be signed that day or you will go elsewhere, really sorts out the fair dinkum sellers.

It is becoming very cosmopolitan as more people arrive from all over the world.

The areas around sheffiled/nieta are really nice but that would put you in the nth of the island so you would need to drink boags beer not cascade and sadly I would no longer be able to speak with you publicly .

Just do it.....you know you want to ....... just watch the chicks.......they sense your 'new' DNA a mile away .....



oops - sorry geraldine

[Rattrap]

Tassie is an awsome place to live. Me & the missus moved here from SA almost 6 years ago for the exact same reasons as u Phil & have never regretted it once.
There are very few mosquitos in Tas, its too cold for them most of the year.
The Central Highlands are more prone to drought than the rest of Tassie. I am a little more north than that, up in the Deloraine area (our closest town) which is N/W of Launceston & its much greener here. You'll find that realestate priced tend to drop very quickly as soon as you get more than 15mins out of town - Taswegeans don't seem to like to travel very far from home. lol.
As Dazzler said, the people down here are so much nicer than on the Nth island.
It does get quite cold down here but funnily enough we found SA winters colder even tho we are at 635m above sea level & above the snow line. Even tho it gets pretty darn cold because we don't get much wind thru the winter u don't feel it as much. Our windy months are usually August/September.
Watch the sun when you're here, tho it feels cooler all year round you'll burn faster than in any other state in the country. The hole in the ozone layer over the South pole allows alot more UV radiation thru which burns without u feeling hot. Alot of visitors get caught out.
The Central Highlands is a nice area - there is no bad areas in Tas, but its also a bit remote from major towns. I don't really know the south of tas all that well but me n the missus love the north of the island. Its actually cooler up in the north than round Hobart.
When we moved here we sold up our house in SA first & shiped all our goods down to Tas & put it all into storage while we had a look round for our favourite spot. We found it a really good way to go.
As Dazzler said, the Shefield area is excellent, not as good as Golden Valley where we are of course. lol. The beauty with this whole area & that includes Shefield areas etc is that we have Launceston & Devenport close-ish - for us Launceston is 45mins away & Devenport is 1hr away.
I don't really know much about some of the things u are asking about but Solar/wind power is viable down here, we are considering it ourselves.
You can't collect fire wood 'freely' from the bush, u need a licence to collect it from cleared areas for tree plantations etc. Or you can just buy it or collect it off your own block. We used to collect if from our block but last couple of years i've gotten a little lazy & bought it in. We usually pay round $50-$70 a meter for good dry firewood. Strange thing with firewood here, in the south they sell it mostly by the Ton while in the north they tend to sell it mostly by the meter. this is tassie after all. lol.
Land rates are pretty good for the. most part compared to the Nth island. To give u an example, we are on 2 blocks, both round 11 acres. The combined rates for both blocks costs us round $500 per year. We used to pay almost that much for a little house block in rural SA!
As Dazzler said, JUST DO IT! lol
But don't tell everyone how good it is here or they'll all want to move here!
Hope this is of some help.

[ptrott]

Thanks for the info so far guys. Much appreciated.

We were also looking at the Golden Valley area which looks to be very nice also.
We are more interested in elevation, and central in an east-west direction, so north or south is not an issue, although proximity to a major city (within 1 hour or so) is very desirable, as is proximity to a town of sufficient size to be able to access shops & doctor. (20 mins or so) Looking at the map, Deloraine, Sheffield & Loongana seem to be pretty much similar in lattitude.

Great news about the mozzies I hate them, but they just love me
The rates sound pretty reasonable. We are on 5 acres in semi-rural area and are paying $1,000 this year

I was looking at wind or solar because many of the blocks we have looked at so far are not powered, but it is not looking good if there is not much wind in winter. Our next option is to look for a block with winter or permanent creek for hydro power in winter.
We will be relying on wood for winter heating and as a last resort for winter power, so a wooded block is now a requirement if we cannot collect firewood freely.
What areas are wooded with the right kind of wood for burning? We are used to burning jarrah so have been a bit spoilt, but there must be a particular type of preferred wood for fires over there? As we are looking for a fair degree of self sufficiency, good fishing would be very nice too. Don't want much do we
I'm a bit surprised that the weather is cooler in the north, but that is just fine with us.
We were thinking of packing everything into a shipping container and having it stored, while we rent a place somewhere near the area we decide on. We have dogs, which is a real issue in W.A. when looking to rent. Hope it is not so bad there.
We will be spending the next few months finishing the reno's on this place and trying to get a feel for the various areas of interest in Tassie.

Any information on district names that are in high country are likely to be well wooded and likely to have running stream or boarder a river would help a lot. we are trying to cross reference between ariel pics, topo. maps and property line maps not all of which have all the local district names on them.

Cheers.

[snowyskiesau]

I'd move to Tassie tomorrow if I could get work there (IT)
My favourite place is in the south - Huon Valley area.

[Wongdai]

Yeah, me and the missus want to move there also. The two things that are stopping us are the lack of jobs in IT, and the kids don't want to move from Perth.

oh well.,..

[Ron Dunn]

Wongdai, what field of IT is your specialisation? I've got a lot of partners and customers who keep their eyes open for good resources, especially in the technologies of SQL Server and SharePoint.

[ptrott]

Hey Dazzler, I don't have any New DNA, just very old DNA so I shouldn't have to worry about the chicks buzzing around me.
I hope they have REAL beer over there, SWAN.
We do want to, would come tomorrow if the renos were complete.

[hitch]

G'day Phil & Geraldine

Tasmania is a fabulous place that I have toured extensively with my partner who is an ex Tasmanian - handy.

We travel to Tas regularly and will move there permanently in around 18 mths to two years time. Our requirements are different to yours in that we want a rural environment but with close proximity to the sea.

We have purchased a two acre block at Port Sorell that is zoned rural residential. The block has a new shed and all we have to do is build a house. (My profile photo is of the shed on the site).

Our rates are $1003 with additional land tax of $388 pa due until such time as it becomes our principle place of residence.

Climatic conditions in Tas can vary significantly over fairly short distances dependent on geographic location and prevailing weather that can also vary significantly over relatively short distances. Overall however the north is warmer than the south and the west has a much higher rain fall than the east. Port Sorell and surrounds is claimed to have the most temperate climate in Tas but from my experience everything is relative.

We are really looking forward to the move and a new lifestyle.

Don't hesitate - Just do it.

Regards

Ian

[terry arnold]

Phill & Geraldine.
Hi we moved down to Tassie 8 years ago now and I could tell you what a wonderful place the Geeveston area is, handy local shops 25 minutes to Hounville about an hour to Hobart. reasonable weather ( raining as I type ) but I won't as we do not want any more mainlanders down here.

Cheers
Terry

[ptrott]

Thanks Ian.
Sounds like there is quite a lot of variation in rates between councils. Something for us to be aware of. The more research we do the more it looks like North of centre & West of centre, but still well inland and high elevation is what will suit our needs.

Believe me there is no hesitation, just time needed to finish our place off.

Terry, thanks fore the "open arm Tasmanian welcome" mate
You don't really think you can keep it a secret, not on this forum.

Wongdai, snowyskiesau, I'll catch you over there as soon as you take the plunge.

[hitch]

Phil & Geraldine

This is more focused at tourism but may be of interest http://www.tourismtasmania.com.au/ne...24_febmar.html

Interesting the claim that no one in Tas lives more than two hours from the sea.

Regards

Ian

[ptrott]

Thanks Hitch

[terry arnold]

Phill & Geraldine

Oh what the hell is was worth a shot.

seriously mate it was the best move we ever made

Best of luck
Terry