New block of land

[wbvs58]

I have come to an agreement to purchase a parcel of land adjoining mine. It is a bit over 400 acres. It is low value land that used to be a tin mine but consists mostly of scrub that only roads and fencelines can be cleared. I have bought it mainly for the family for recreation and to secure my boundary. My wife and daughter will enjoy riding their horses through it and my grandson will be able to ride his bike around it and to hoon over the many sand dunes from the tin washings. It is not completely useless for the cattle, I have been putting the dry cows in there for a few years now after weaning the calves up to just before calving. It is very usefull as it gives my pastures a break and the rye grass that I drill into them a chance to get going with winter feed. They never go hungry in there, just low quality feed that can be easily supplemented. It is sort of my drought insurance and will get me out of trouble in bad times and I am sure I can do some improvement to it so we are very excited.

Ken

 

[JMJ Farms]

Good for you Ken. Always nice when you have the opportunity to purchase adjoining land. And are also financially able to seize the opportunity. Good luck and hope you enjoy it.

 

[jltrent]

You never know as someday you might want to start digging tin again and now you have the mine.

 

[Bright Raven]

I have come to an agreement to purchase a parcel of land adjoining mine. It is a bit over 400 acres. It is low value land that used to be a tin mine but consists mostly of scrub that only roads and fencelines can be cleared. I have bought it mainly for the family for recreation and to secure my boundary. My wife and daughter will enjoy riding their horses through it and my grandson will be able to ride his bike around it and to hoon over the many sand dunes from the tin washings. It is not completely useless for the cattle, I have been putting the dry cows in there for a few years now after weaning the calves up to just before calving. It is very usefull as it gives my pastures a break and the rye grass that I drill into them a chance to get going with winter feed. They never go hungry in there, just low quality feed that can be easily supplemented. It is sort of my drought insurance and will get me out of trouble in bad times and I am sure I can do some improvement to it so we are very excited.

Ken

Ken, what is fencing like in your area? I assume this being old mining property in an arid area that it is like our western states. Old mine areas almost never have any fence.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I have come to an agreement to purchase a parcel of land adjoining mine. It is a bit over 400 acres. It is low value land that used to be a tin mine but consists mostly of scrub that only roads and fencelines can be cleared. I have bought it mainly for the family for recreation and to secure my boundary. My wife and daughter will enjoy riding their horses through it and my grandson will be able to ride his bike around it and to hoon over the many sand dunes from the tin washings. It is not completely useless for the cattle, I have been putting the dry cows in there for a few years now after weaning the calves up to just before calving. It is very usefull as it gives my pastures a break and the rye grass that I drill into them a chance to get going with winter feed. They never go hungry in there, just low quality feed that can be easily supplemented. It is sort of my drought insurance and will get me out of trouble in bad times and I am sure I can do some improvement to it so we are very excited.

Ken

Ken, what is fencing like in your area? I assume this being old mining property in an arid area that it is like our western states. Old mine areas almost never have any fence.

I assume this old mining property has some sort of fencing already in place.

 

[greybeard]

Is there any opal on your new block?
(Saw an interesting video on some place called Coober Pedy not long ago...........strange place

 

[wbvs58]

No opal that I am aware of. Most of the tin extraction was alluvial being washed out and ponding of the water. I believe there is a lot of Wolfram (tungsten) as well along with Molybdinum and something else I cant remember. There was some shafts dug up on the higher areas going back to the 1860's with one shaft going straight down about 20 metres. Another area had some underground horizontal mining, I have been down one of them to a big chamber with other shafts I could see going off it but had to cross another vertical shaft that was full of water to get to them so didn't go any further.

The boundary fences aren't too bad Ron but I will clear the 10metres away from them that I am allowed to give better access and to help grow grass and will clear and do some internal fencing.

Rainfall here is pretty good, I suspect our long term average would be 850 to 900 mm which I think is around 36 inches.

We have very tough clearing rules here, something to do with complying to the Kyoti agreement or something but we can't just go out and clear and it is impossible to get approval. Most of the land would be pretty fair grazing country if cleared. I am limited to doing fences and roadways and I can do 5 acres for essential infrastructure so I will be doing lots of roads and lots of fences.

It is an interesting place, I may look at doing a small bush camping venture and my daughter might put together a small string of quite horses and do farmstays and guided horse riding, we will see.

Ken

 

[greybeard]

We have very tough clearing rules here, something to do with complying to the Kyoti agreement or something but we can't just go out and clear and it is impossible to get approval. Most of the land would be pretty fair grazing country if cleared. I am limited to doing fences and roadways and I can do 5 acres for essential infrastructure so I will be doing lots of roads and lots of fences.

Good grief.. Govt control. Lackeys to enforce it. Providing jobs for burrow rats..

 

[Turkeybird]

Get some goats and hogs, they will tame that stuff down

 

[Nesikep]

you could accidentally drive through there with the boom sprayer turned upward when it's got roundup in it.. then wait a while!

 

[wbvs58]

We have very tough clearing rules here, something to do with complying to the Kyoti agreement or something but we can't just go out and clear and it is impossible to get approval. Most of the land would be pretty fair grazing country if cleared. I am limited to doing fences and roadways and I can do 5 acres for essential infrastructure so I will be doing lots of roads and lots of fences.

Good grief.. Govt control. Lackeys to enforce it. Providing jobs for burrow rats..

Exactly GB, we have no jobs in manufacturing now so gov enacts these legislations to employ people to police these policies. The rural sector was also easy pickings to take from so the government could comply with their targets.

Ken

 

[greybeard]

Coming soon, to a theater of operations near us....or already here?

 

[kenny thomas]

Ken, I gave to ask even though it's none of our business. What is the land cost with so much restrictions on it. Per acre, seems like it would need to be cheap.
Grazing land restrictions here are almost none. But some of what I own still barely pays for itself. It's more the investment and enjoyment of owning it.

 

[wbvs58]

Kenny, I am paying $225,000 for about 425 acres. Open grazing land around here is going for around $2500/acre. The land prices are inflated as the area is favoured by retirees for lifestyle living due to our climate, we get true 4 seasons and milder summers due to our altitude around 900 metres (3000 ft).

Ken

 

[kenny thomas]

Thanks I was thinking more in the 2-3 hundred dollars an acre. Seems the retirees are causing the prices to go crazy there also.

 

[Redgully]

Spare a thought for me, I was looking at a 36 acre block, all fenced paddocks and a house and shed, 1.6million. Needless to say I didn't buy it. Prices are falling here but 15 years ago that block would have been $250,000. We had a mining boom here like no one has seen before and about 1,000,000 people came with it so house prices went through the roof. Boom went bust but land prices still scary.

 

[wbvs58]

Thanks I was thinking more in the 2-3 hundred dollars an acre. Seems the retirees are causing the prices to go crazy there also.

I went for a drive today to check out a back entrance to the place and surprising the number of driveways and houses hidden going off into the bush.

Redgully I know the effect the mines and gas fields have had on real estate in the towns west of here.

Ken

 

[boondocks]

Ken, Congrats!!! Hope you enjoy the property! New ventures, new adventures!
Curious (with it being a former mine) if you have to worry about any lingering environmental impacts? Some of my family's homeplaces back in West Virginia (US) had streams that were impacted by local coal mines (shut down years earlier), so I was just curious if you have to worry about that

 

[wbvs58]

Boondocks, little to worry about, no chemicals used, mostly water used to extract the alluvial tin. There are some deep shafts but tend to be in areas that are of little interest to the cattle but I will fence them off. They may be of interest in a small scale tourist venture but that will be up to my daughter to pursue if she desires, maybe a stopping point with some guided trail rides.

Ken