Defender now quite secondhand...

[solmanic]

Well at long last we have managed to make it up to our family retreat - "Highview" (thanks to my parents for the original name). However, due to the amount of rain and the long delay since our last visit we had a bit of roadworks to do...

Here is the view towards the house form the bottom of the valley. The house is along the ridgeline in the far distance. The soil along the track through the farms at the bottom is black and slippery as hell in the wet. There were plenty of signs that the neighbours, who live here full time, had had quite a bit of fun during the wet. Despite that there were actually no ruts big enough to even lift a wheel in the Defender. The neighbours had just kept tracking wider and wider off the road each time the previous route got to greasy.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7499/080322highview002nt6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And this is what we were dreading - the road into our property has disappeared...

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8906/080322highview003bq1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Well, not entirely. The road surface underneath the weeds has actually held up better than we expected. No rutting from runoff at all really.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2632/080322highview005pc0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is closer to the range - house is on the ridgeline dead ahead. And below us is where the road should be. Nothing a few hours with the brush-cutter couldn't fix...
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6566/080322highview006jg7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Once we got into the trees at the foot of the hill the weeds and lantana thinned out and the road here was fairly clear. I said fairly clear as there was one tree down that we had to carve up and drag off the track.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3873/080322highview011ue1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The drive in has its moments, but the real fun is the last couple of kilometres where the track winds up the hill through the forest to the house. I think this will be my new desktop picture...
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2144/080322highview012pf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now this corner, about halfway up the hill, has given us quite a bit of trouble over the years. Again my parents have given it the fantastically original name of "Devil's Elbow". It has been bulldozed a couple of times and used to be a lot tighter and steeper. Now it just presents problems in the wet as there is a natural spring which soaks it pretty thoroughly... We kind of gave up clearing here and just let the vehicles push it all over.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9987/080322highview014ip5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Again the road up the hill was remarkably well preserved. No wheel-lifting, hair-raising action at all. We have installed an automated, speaking rain gauge which we can ring up. If there has been more than 15-20mm rain in the last 24hrs then the road is generally too slippery to drive up without chains or a winch. Since it is supposed to be a relaxing, retreat then we have adopted the approach that if it's too wet, forget it. Whilst we were building the place we spent too many hours trying to winch cars and building materials up the muddy track that now we do everything to avoid it in the wet.

Here is the track along the top of the ridge leading up to the house. We just cleared a hole big enough to poke the cars through...
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6499/080322highview017da5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Once we finally arrived we put the 4WDs out to graze while we had a well earned lunch.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3318/080322highview019si7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And here it is...
The house is a pole-frame construction. Two-storey split level projecting off the hill to the north looking down to the adjacent valley. Solar power, gas fridge and hot water, septic system and a very nice microwave phone link courtesy of Telstra.

With the road up the hill in such good condition the new Defender now feels like a bit of overkill - but hey, it's all good!
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9120/080322highview024zd5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

After another couple of hours on the slasher my hands are shot and so is the rest of me so I'm done now.

[Vern]

Nice:D

[rovercare]

Nice:D

^^^:)

[Ranga]

where is the property?

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Cool. Thanks for the photos! Looks great.

[camel_landy]

Nice one... :cool:

[Defender=1st]

Nice Pics

[87County]

thanks for pics , theyr'e quite good:)

some of those green weeds look pretty interesting:o

[sclarke]

Most would kill for that

So when do we all get to come up and find a valley to "Attempt"

[disco2hse]

Mate you are sooo lucky having that to retreat to. Your parents were far sighted getting it sorted and I'll bet it is nice and cool up there on hot days.

Excellent photos too. I am not surprised that there was minimal damage to the drive. The overgrowth will have held the surface soil in place.


We have installed an automated, speaking rain gauge which we can ring up. If there has been more than 15-20mm rain in the last 24hrs then the road is generally too slippery to drive up without chains or a winch.

Cool idea :) Could be a useful thing for some of the Coromandel tracks over here. They can get downright treacherous in the wet.


The house is a pole-frame construction. Two-storey split level projecting off the hill to the north looking down to the adjacent valley. Solar power, gas fridge and hot water, septic system and a very nice microwave phone link courtesy of Telstra.

Great looking place. I bet the local wildlife think its the bees knees when you're not there too ;)

Thanks for the pics and things. Some of us are having to work this weekend :glare:

[solmanic]

Thanks for the comments.

The property is up the Brisbane Valley - accessed off the Splityard Creek - Somerset Dam road. It is in the D'aguilar range just over the back of Lacey's Creek.

An AULRO trip up there might not be a bad idea - if people are prepared to bring their chainsaws and pruning tools ;). A dozen or so vehicles through there would do wonders for keeping the road clear. As it is we didn't clear the first couple of hundred metres of our road so the average punter might not even suspect there is a track there at all :thumbsup:.

There is another fun little track that goes through into the neighbouring property which we have slashed a few tyres on over the years. It is also nearly invisible now but could be easily cleared. For a while we relied on it for all-weather access until our road was brought up to a decent standard. It has a couple of steep, rocky pitches that have thwarted non-low range vehicles. There is also a koala colony living along the route which, seeing as how the road runs along the ridgeline, allows easy viewing of them curled up in the tree branches down the slope.

We did most of the building work through the late 80s and early 90s lugging materials up with my old LWB Series III. I can't say it ever did things as easily, or as comfortably as the new Defender though :cool:.

[VladTepes]

How big is the property ? It looks very nice, ya lucky sod !

[Aaron]

There is also a koala colony living along the route which, seeing as how the road runs along the ridgeline, allows easy viewing of them curled up in the tree branches down the slope.



4wd'ing and lunch! You've been holding out! :P

[solmanic]

77 acres all up but most of it is inpenetrable forest. Lots of figs and vines with enormous scattered hoop pines throughout. The track in and the house itself is right on one corner of the property. I'm thinking of selling our carbon credits :p.

Many farmers up the Brisbane Valley have over time sold off large chunks of their land to city folk realising that they could still run their cattle since the townies would generally have no intention of fencing. The yard around the house is fenced to keep the wallabies out. Before it was fenced we would periodically get up there and find every stick of grass pulled out by the roots. There is an automated watering system which fills a couple of birdbaths so there is always an abundance of birdlife hanging around.

Here's another shot of the house which gives a better idea of the siting. The verandahs to the left are cantilevered off the hill with the lower one about 3m off the ground. There's two 9,000l water tanks up to the right in the bush which are both full at the moment.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/ (http://imageshack.us)

[justinc]

Fantastic part of the world. I am GREEN. (Not the political shade, the envious one!)

We'll be above the 26th parrallel around early June, can't wait.

JC

[gruntfuttock]

It certanily looks like a great place and you are very lucky to have something like that.

[Scallops]

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2995/080322highview023nl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The place looks delightful, solmanic. I'm intrigued by the rain gauge - how does that work? You can make a phone call to it? :o

I'll give you a hand to clear track any time you need some help up there. :angel:

PS - It was a pity we couldn't make the Good Friday drive - glad you all had a good day out. :)

[solmanic]

The rain gauge reader uses a voice synthesiser chip. My father is a mad-keen engineer and he designed this magic answering machine box that takes the digital rain-gauge readout and speaks it three times when the phone is answered. We periodically reset it and keep track of the rain totals whenever there is a wet spell.

I have been encouraging him to put a full-on webcam and weather station up there so we can just log-on to check it out.

[Scallops]

The rain gauge reader uses a voice synthesiser chip. My father is a mad-keen engineer and he designed this ....

:TakeABow::TakeABow::TakeABow:

Wow! That's neat.

[camel_landy]

:TakeABow::TakeABow::TakeABow:

Wow! That's neat.

+1... :cool:

[camel_landy]

An AULRO trip up there might not be a bad idea - if people are prepared to bring their chainsaws and pruning tools ;). A dozen or so vehicles through there would do wonders for keeping the road clear. As it is we didn't clear the first couple of hundred metres of our road so the average punter might not even suspect there is a track there at all :thumbsup:.


Nooooo...... Keep it as it. Only trim back the damaging stuff - If you REALLY have to.

Having to drive a track like that only adds to the pleasure of your hidden gem. :thumbsup:

M

[Phred]

Love your place , brings back lots of memories I spent my 1st 14 years on a dairy farm at Lacey's creek down the other end close to dayboro. Spent many a weekend on trail bikes in those hills.
Peter

[disco2hse]

Anywhere near here?

D'aguilar range, QLD, australia - Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=D'aguilar+range,+QLD,+australia&sll=-27.92162,151.98761&sspn=2.10887,3.098145&ie=UTF8&ll=-27.36405,152.724638&spn=0.01656,0.024204&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr)

Not sure if this'll work, so here goes.


<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=D'aguilar+range,+QLD,+au stralia&amp;sll=-27.92162,151.98761&amp;sspn=2.10887,3.098145&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;l l=-27.351643,152.733908&amp;spn=0.01656,0.024204&amp;t=h&amp;z=14 &amp;iwloc=addr&amp;output=embed&amp;s=AARTsJplsOIlEvr5NFXqftP NubsOV2BGEw"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=D'aguilar+range,+QLD,+au stralia&amp;sll=-27.92162,151.98761&amp;sspn=2.10887,3.098145&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;l l=-27.351643,152.733908&amp;spn=0.01656,0.024204&amp;t=h&amp;z=14 &amp;iwloc=addr&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

[disco2hse]

Hmm didn't work so good, but the first link is there, I think :angel:

[solmanic]

A bit further north and on the western side of the range - only accessed from the Wivenhoe-Somerset side.

[disco2hse]

:thumbsup:

Good stuff. Hope it stays in th family for generations to come.

[JamesH]

Wow.

I notice you sent the Pajaero up ahead to fall down any washouts, mud ruts etc. Sensible, definitely, but not exactly chivalrous.

[solmanic]

Wow.

I notice you sent the Pajaero up ahead to fall down any washouts, mud ruts etc. Sensible, definitely, but not exactly chivalrous.

The Pajero has the winch :thumbsup: