Sunday 9 December 2007

Farm Get-Away is Going Up-Market

My parents own a 25-acre farmlet at Lake Wallace, 3 hours drive north of Sydeny, that they bought when I was a teenager. It was previously part of a cattle farm, and the 10-acres that was pasture slowly became overgrown while the family only used it for the occasional camping holiday while we were at school. About 15 years ago my parents and I started an alpaca farm using the property and my parents had a new "kit" home erected on the siten, and erected some fencing. We're hoping to be able to visit my parent's farm during school holidays for the next 10-15 years, as the area is really nice and unspoilt at the moment. Although there has been quite a bit of development of the town of Forster-Tuncurry at the northern end of Lake Wallace (with some high-rise units being built), the southern end was not very developed, with just a large camping site nestled between two stetches of national park along the coast. The seaward side of Lake Wallace was a narrow stretch of sand dunes, forming the "seven miles beach", which was one of the most best stretches of beach I've seen. Many times we visited the beach during the Summer holiday season and could walk along stretches of the beach without another person in sight.

All that will probably change very soon, as there is a large redevelopment of the camping ground being advertised, which will install scores of residential units and several five-storey unit blocks near the beach. At least the central stretch of seven-mile beach is national park, so, hopefully most of the residents of the new "luxury" development will stay close to their home units and not completely destroy the tranquility of the beach.

Copyright Enough Wealth 2007

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