Blog All Title

Thinking ahead down here.

In a couple of years time Im planning on building a simple steel framed house on five acres of termite nest out in the hills beyond Cairns, and I figure anyone thinking about building anything bigger than a doghouse needs to figure out what they want well before time. So, Ive decided to see what the most energy efficient options are for my area, and as usual, nothing is as simple as it should be.

The good news is my land has no town water or town sewerage connections, and thats fine by me. The water will come from a bore or from rain and will be stored in tanks, and not being connected to town sewerage is fine by me too now I hear they can test the recreational substance use of an entire community with a single tablespoon of effluent. Just whos tablespoon they were planning on using I dont know. Heres where it gets tricky though. In order to protect the water table, septic tanks systems are banned,and homes must install fully self contained sewerage treatment facilities on site. Cost? Last time I asked, about five years ago, they were ten grand. I doubt theyve gone down.

Then theres power. After Cyclone Larry the power went out for weeks in some spots because the power lines are run through the jungle and over mountain ranges, and repairing them was a massive task. So, I want to be 'off the grid' so Im not dependant on the town power supply. Again its not that simple. Solar panels are wonderful but have a very finite life span. Still, they do make sense given the fact clouds are so rare here people shoot at them out of fear when one turns up. Solar energy.. not cheap, not particularly powerful, especially if you want to operate a machine shop. Wind power is a good choice because turbines would work fine on my land with its strong steady winds, but there are quality of life problems, as in 'neighbours'. Wind turbines were touted as the answer to all our energy problems right up until the moment one was erected and some person went 'Oooh! Thats ugly!'.

So, now every time a wind farm or a home turbine is proposed, someone finds an endangered species that will be put at risk if the project goes ahead. Just how a Giant Gippsland Earthworm is going to feed itself into the blades thirty feet up is beyond me, but the victim of choice these days is the now legendary Orange Bellied Parrot, or 'OBP'. OBP's are magical creatures, like unicorns or bigfoot, because while theres only supposed to be a few dozen of the fluffy buggers left, they seem to appear in every damn electorate across southern Australia. Most birds migrate from feeding ground to breeding ground, but the OBP seems to migrate from council to building site to electorate, usually arriving in October each year just before the end of year elections. If the electorate is a marginal one, you might even see two. Mind you, they will only appear at the site of a proposed wind farm. It beats me why people who visit KFC twice a day give a damn about a parrot that cant even color co ordinate.

So, solar is expensive, wind power is 'visually polluting' and the only thing you're allowed to burn in Mareeba is the local cash crop, one joint at a time. Looks like Ill have to go nuclear with these here plans I found on the internet. That or a really, really big hamster and a ferris size wheel.

K