Home on the Range, the Condong Range

Over seven years I demolished,renovated and rebuilt  our five flats in Belmont Road.
I had this concept of a courtyard house providing private outdoor activity for a little frivolity,and wished to demonstrate this with a north facing property,which gets winter sun into its yard.The concept was highly acceptable to Mosman Council when they approved our strata plan.
Friend Douglas had shown me how to lay bricks,so with trowel,plumb, and level , I set about building a 6 foot high wall round the ground floor flat.
Aspect is important so north-south axis can deliver maximum sunshine.At one stage I had tried to register the name COURTHOUSE but it was rejected as we already have courthouses.
When the units were sold it delivered us independence,and the money was invested in three mortgages which provide income to buy the groceries.
Shortly after buying the property the well known real estate agent L. J. Hooker announced that Mosman was the next suburb to take off.And it did.!
We could now satisfy our dream of moving to the North coast of New South Wales and follow an alternative lifestyle.
We had looked at many rural properties,and liked the area between Lismore and Bangalow.The road followed an elevated ridge through towns like Bexhill,Clunes and Eltham,rolling green countryside on red volcanic soil.This had much appeal,warm climate,slow tempo living, worlds best surfing beaches at Byron Bay.
A friend looked at a rundown property at Possum Creek just outside Bangalow,but advised us we would not make a living from it.Paul Hogan later purchased land at Possum Creek and built a mansion for his new bride!
We negotiated for several 100 acre properties which had been dairy farms,over the years,and now had the potential as avacadoe,,macadamia and banana farms
I had been reading Earth Garden magazine ,and had become fascinated with their concepts "self sufficient man"building mud brick houses, solar power etc so we diverted to Melbourne for a week to inspect various houses at Eltham,home of alternate building in Victoria.
After inspecting   Monsalvat an artists colony,built with recycled materials   we believed anything was possible..All this was reinforced by several TV programs,BBC produced a series on life in China called The Heart of the Dragon showing the way their community came together to build additional rooms on houses and the use of ever present bamboo as a scaffolding in their building.
BBC also produced an alternative life style show about a suburban family turning over their back garden to vegetable production with much humor..
Our friend Dr Roger Burgess alerted us to to a 59 acre property on the top of the Condong Range for sale,this property had very successful history of prime banana production,because of its north facing aspect.This area just north of Murwillumbah is between the Condong sugar mill and Clothiers Creek road which heads down to Bogangah  by the sea.
On the property was a tractor shed,with its own snake.












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Original banana packing shed built
of galvanised steel sides and roof
sawn timber flooring

Over several months I spent time doubling the shed in size, installing a water tank on top of a tree stump
with an outdoor shower.







Below

Photo of interior improvements.
Gas stove on concrete blocks
supplied by bottled gas
kookaburra recycled cook top.
and stainles steel sink.






















The plastic covered shutters were
removed and replaced with sliding
windows.







Outside the extension was covered by
shingles.

The family were living in Wahroong,so it required me to make the 14 hour journey every second month in my EH Holden station waggon to do the building work,and dig out the patch of bananas ,the banana inspector said were infected with Bunchey top..
While in transition I stayed with Syd and Mavis on the corner of Clothiers Creek road.,which was very helpful.When the family moved in we were able to do the necessary work more easily,
There was no electricity connection to the grid so we purchased a portable generator to supply power for lighting and our fridge.
A dam was built  below the constantly flowing spring,this provided a swimming hole for our children Josh and Guy and their friends.

Photo of dam.










A trapeez was built over the dam
for some fun.






An overflow valve was manufactured at a local workshop with a stabalising plate buried in the dam wall.
Grass was planted on the dam wall to stabalise the soil,as it was a high rainfall area














The Acquarius festaval was taking place at Nimben,the heart of Hippydom.We could have been described as quasi hippies with our own celebrations on the top of the hill with our friends.

Party photos










We formed a friendship with Ted and Honey ,a local banana grower,who leased 10 acres of north facing land to grow his crops.This also provided a caretaker while we were away in Sydney.
The children were enrolled at the Condong school,and cycled to the bus stop,for their journey to school.
My day began with either picking bananas or avacadoes packing the fruit and taking it to the rail depo at Murwillumbah. My wife Marigold prefferred to play tennis and joined the local tennis club as she stated she would not help me on the farm.