We bought a farm!

Our Tassie plans are all coming together now

While we have been working on our little cabin in St Marys, and getting ready for our big lap around Australia, we have also been keeping a keen eye on properties in Hobart, hoping to secure our new home before our trip so we know what we are coming back to. Our criteria was within 30 mins of the CBD, at least 5 acres with part of that being native bush, a house that had good layout but perhaps needs a refresh so we can add our own style, a shed/ place to put a pottery studio in and ideally a self contained guest cabin (common down here), some established fruit trees and room for a small market garden one day.

We made a few trips down to the capital over the past few months but hadn't quite found anything that we liked enough and we had time to be fussy. On one of our trips we started to look down the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Huon Valley and noticed that there were more properties here that fit our bill and also more people doing things that align with what we want to be doing down in Hobart.

At the end of March, we’d just gotten back to St Marys from a trip to Hobart (3 hours drive) and opened the real estate apps to see that a property that ticked all our boxes had just been listed! It was straight back down to Hobart for a private inspection, and a realisation that we may have just found our dream house- and it was an organic farm!

Time was running out for us before our trip and we were concerned it would be too much to take on just before we left but it was exactly what we had been looking for and it just felt right so we acted quickly and the vendors agreed to a quick settlement and just last week we picked up the keys and headed down.

The property is 9 acres in Allens Rivulet, 25 mins south of Hobart, just off the Channel highway. We are 10 mins away from Kingston which is a major hub, and Kettering where the Bruny Island ferry departs.

We have 14 poly tunnels with automatic irrigation and bore water, an irrigated orchard with existing hazelnut, blueberry, cherry, apple and pear trees, 5 acres of native bush brimming with wildlife and bordering on the Allens Rivulet, a 3 bedroom house and 3 bay shed.

The previous owners had a Community Supported Agriculture scheme running veggie boxes year round out of the tunnel houses. They use organic no-till principles and the soil in the tunnels is incredible. As part of the purchase we’d asked them to harvest and sell everything they could to ensure nothing went to waste. The tunnels are being put to sleep while we are away so they have been covered with black tarps.

Last week while we were down there getting the house ready for tenants we had to pack down the last 3 tunnels which had green manure cover crops in, and harvest about 100 leeks which had been left behind. It was about 2 degrees (snowing on Kunanyi which we can see from our orchard) and raining but I guess that’s southern life! The leeks have been donated to a local social enterprise who run a cafe and catering business employing disadvantaged people.

Other tasks included flushing out all our irrigation lines to avoid pipe breakages if it gets below freezing temperatures while we are away.

The property also has a cute little self contained cabin which we will fix up for guest accommodation. It faces out to the bush and would be perfect for an artist retreat!

We spent a couple of days at the property getting to know the land, and saw lots of wallabies and pademelons through the bush. Living right by the rivulet and having fairly untouched bush means there is a lot of wildlife about and they seem happy to come close to the house (to our delight!). We even heard quolls one night outside!

The house is sunny and raised above the bush, and has some really nice features we will work with in our renovation. We will convert one of the shed bays into a pottery studio, we have a workshop filled with equipment which we purchased with the farm, and a packing shed.

We have so many plans for the land and the house (including swapping out those stained glass windows!) and we are so excited to come back here in the new year.