#5 Week 3 Photo Essay

Originally uploaded by reawaraent

House Viewed from the South West. It is to scale of the Great pyramid of Giza. The house has a Base of 11.5 M square and aliened to true North.

South West View of House

Photo Essay

The House that George and Mary Built

South West View of House

In 1979 we purchased a property and built this house to the scale of the Great pyramid of Giza. The house has a Base of 11.5 M square and aligned to true North.

I'm taking a step back here, to a time shortly before we were married. We met a retired Dutch couple that lived on some crown land North of Launceston in a village called Lefroy. It was an old gold mining settlement but had run dry and very few people lived there.

We were looking for some land to build on so the Schumacher's invited us to move onto the crown land with them rent free. We took them up on the idea and bought a second hand 16 foot caravan for $2,000. We lived in the caravan until we could find a place of our own.

During the time we were there I built a shed that could be easily taken apart when we moved and then reassembled on the new site. We stored what furniture we had in the shed in the meantime.

We were there for about six months until at last, the day came when we found our land and started to settle in.

We had to chuckle at people that came to visit us during this time. It was a bit primitive and many asked us how we could live like this.

It was being used as a paddock 4.5 hectares in size. It was a triangular shape block with a slope down to the road and a nice rich soil. We paid $16,000 Cash for the place.

We moved in and started by setting up the shed and getting things together.

Well it wasn't as bad as one might think. It didn't take me long to build a small building and set up a shower, laundry and toilet. I set up a platform that was about 8 foot tall and put a water tank on it. That gave us a nice head of water for showers.

And before you ask, we did not have to take cold showers I cobbled together a hot water heater out of a copper tank from an old burnt out hot water heater and an ancient combustion stove. Add to all that one of the small portable chemical toilets and we were in business.

Called up the power company to see about getting power on and they said I would have to pay $2,000 for a transformer to put on the power pole that ran through the property. I told them that they could keep their transformer and I would buy a generator. Interestingly they suddenly changed their minds and said I would have to pay a set amount for a year to justify them putting on the power even if we did not use it. In no time we had the power on and a builders box next to the caravan.

The caravan had a gas stove and a fridge but no oven to bake in. I went about gathering some stones that was around the property and managed to build a small wood fired oven. It worked out just fine Mary was able to bake bread and cakes in it. As a matter of fact the whole time we lived there we never had an oven. Mary came up with the idea of using a electric fry pan as an oven to bake in and it worked just fine.

Mary had been working as a clerk for a Shipping company but was laid off. We never did find out why but we think it was because she would not go out with her boss.

Anyway she managed to get a job with a company that sold Irrigation equipment and Concrete water tanks. That was to come in handy as she got an employees discount on anything they sold.

January 1980 rolled around and my contract with the college ended and we were established on the land so we did not have any rent to pay. The only “rent” we paid was $0.50 a week to the Council have the caravan on the property.

End Part one