Here it is! The letter which says we can clear just enough space for a house and access! yay!Friday, April 16, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Benji and I do things slowly... but we eventually get where we're going.
About six months ago, we bought our little piece of earth and are now finally beginning the initial steps towards building a house on it.
There are no services hooked up to our block - no electricity, no water, no sewerage and no phone lines... and we are hoping to keep it that way... a little self sufficient nest on a mountain. So we have readied ourselves for the fact that we are going to face a number of challenges in designing and building our home.
The first challenge was the abundance of grass trees (Xanthorrea johnsonii and a few other Xanthorrea species) on the block. These are a protected native plant - removal without a permit is illegal. Unfortunately getting information about permits for removal/clearing/salvage is very difficult. It seems so many government departments (e.g. local council, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Environmental Protection Agency etc etc) are involved and nobody really knows exactly what the rules are, or if you have to get multiple levels of permission.
Finally however, two days ago, after weeks of communication with the various departments, I received a phone call giving me the go-ahead. So when I get the paper report of that phonecall (I am still a little worried that it could be so easy) we can begin the salvage process, put a driveway in, finally do some soil testing and really get serious about the house planning.
About six months ago, we bought our little piece of earth and are now finally beginning the initial steps towards building a house on it.
There are no services hooked up to our block - no electricity, no water, no sewerage and no phone lines... and we are hoping to keep it that way... a little self sufficient nest on a mountain. So we have readied ourselves for the fact that we are going to face a number of challenges in designing and building our home.
The first challenge was the abundance of grass trees (Xanthorrea johnsonii and a few other Xanthorrea species) on the block. These are a protected native plant - removal without a permit is illegal. Unfortunately getting information about permits for removal/clearing/salvage is very difficult. It seems so many government departments (e.g. local council, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Environmental Protection Agency etc etc) are involved and nobody really knows exactly what the rules are, or if you have to get multiple levels of permission.
Finally however, two days ago, after weeks of communication with the various departments, I received a phone call giving me the go-ahead. So when I get the paper report of that phonecall (I am still a little worried that it could be so easy) we can begin the salvage process, put a driveway in, finally do some soil testing and really get serious about the house planning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)