How much is a mobile phone worth?

A few weeks ago a man in his early 40s, on his way home from work, dropped his mobile phone onto the train tracks at Stockholm’s central station. It was the busiest time of day at the city’s busiest underground station. I guess he had to weigh up the situation. Apparently he waited for a train to come and go and then, to the concern of the other commuters that packed the platform, he hopped down onto the tracks. Anyone who commutes at that time of day would know that the trains usually come in at no longer than 3-minute intervals. Perhaps what we don’t know, is just how high the platform is from the tracks. It would certainly seem that this man made that misjudgment.

Why we chose our little slice of paradise

I was recently asked about why we chose Nambucca Shire as our desired, self-sustainable destination. I would probably argue that it chose us! The clinching factors that decided it for us were:

Beautiful area
Nambucca Shire has the best of all worlds – beautiful rolling countryside, charming country towns and stunning beaches. Nambucca estuary is amazing – a panorama that changes continually with the tides and the light from dawn until dusk. As I grew up in Cronulla, Sydney, living near the coast has always been a priority for me. 

Value
As we’re on a pretty tight budget, land price was crucial to us. If you look up and down the NSW coastline you see that there are very few places left that are affordable. Taking into account proximity to the coast, towns and services, we felt the area offered everything we desired for relatively good value.

A wonderful plot
The real clincher - 13 of the most perfectly beautiful rural acres, just a stone’s throw from the coast. The land is, essentially, half of a small gully, which slopes down towards acres of bush that push out towards Bollanolla Mountain. 

It’s North-facing and frost-free, giving us the opportunity to harness the power of the sun for passive solar design, energy and water-heating, as well as to grow a wide range of fruits and vegetables year round. The plot is also fed by an underground spring and with a couple of sites suitable for building dams.

It’s a natural beauty. The first day we arrived there, we were privileged to witness two wallabies fighting on the flat grassland at the bottom. In that moment, surrounded by beautiful gum trees and lush green grass, we were utterly captivated.

Climate and rainfall

The Nambucca River area has a moderate subtropical climate, high rainfall and fertile volcanic soils – just about everything we were looking for. The average temperatures are 26°C in summer and 18°C in winter. The region has high rainfall (average 1300– 1600 mm per annum – way above the national and state averages), which should enable us to harvest all the water we need. On the negative side the area suffered terrible flood conditions no less than five times during 2009 – with disastrous consequences in some areas – but I’m happy to say that our property stood up well to the deluges and, apart from a few crevices in our dirt road, there are barely any signs of it at all.

Location

Nambucca lies half way between Brisbane and Sydney. Newee Creek has four towns close by: Bowraville, Macksville, Nambucca and Bellingen, Forty minutes North on the Pacific Highway lies Coffs Harbour, a fast-growing town, which is a key factor for us. As well as potentially offering us opportunities for employment, it will also broaden our options for our daughter’s education. And last, but definitely not least, we have heaps of family and friends to both the North and South, who frequently pass by on the Pacific Highway. In future they’ll have good reason to stop and relax a while! We look forward to that moment.

C

Sustainability - it's child's play in Sweden

Last week when I was standing waiting for a tram, an advertisement on the platform shelter caught my eye. The ad showed the inside of a dishwasher, with the headline Boil an egg in the dishwasher. The advertiser was SWECO, the Swedish sustainable engineering and design company, and apparently this was one of 31,000 ‘enriching’ projects. Intriguing, I thought. So I went away to find out a bit more about SWECO and their other 30,999 enriching projects.

Living in the shadow of rat mountain

Spare a thought for the residents of Rattenberg, a small picturesque village in the Austrian alps. Every year from November to February the imposing, and aptly named, Rat Mountain, prevents the sun from shining on the village. Originally the village was founded below the mountain to protect from marauders but now a marauder of a different kind, namely depression, is plaguing the villagers. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects nearly a quarter of the population and is forcing people to move to sunnier climes. To rub further salt into the wounds a village of the same size, just across the river, gets plenty of sunshine all year round.

Newington Smart Home - a vision for the future

So last week, we did something quite impetuous - in the most carefully considered sense of the word! While browsing around on the internet, researching for our 'dream' project, Chris came across a tender opportunity with EnergyAustralia/Sydney Water, for a family with a writer to live for one year in a futuristic 'smart home', in Newington, Sydney (Sydney Olympic Village). We think we could be that family - why not??!

Snow

Since we got back to Sweden from Australia in January, the temperature has never been above zero (and frequently minus 10 or more and we've had absolutely heaps of snow – proper, crunchy, powder snow. Everyone says it's the coldest, snowiest winter they can remember.

The last snowfall started around lunchtime on Friday and stopped some time during the night last night, leaving us with another 20 or 30 centimetres of snow. We just got back from a quick walk – quick because it's minus 10 with a bracing wind, which probably gives a windchill temperature of minus 15 plus! My cheeks are still stinging.

Anyway, it's pretty spectacular out, so we thought we'd share a few photos. Enjoy!

J

The Masonry Heater or 'Kakelugn'

We are currently going though a very cold winter here in Sweden – the coldest since I moved here in the early 90s. There is, however, enough sway in temperature to allow the slightly warmer, cloudy days that afford snow. A lot of snow. As it builds up outside, smothering our lawn (just got in from a major shoveling session) and stripping the street of any definition, it feels comforting to get inside and snuggle up next to our ‘kakelugn’.

Poles apart

It seems appropriate to begin my spin on things with a general weigh-up of some of the differences between the two countries I have lived most of my life in. I grew up in Australia and moved to Sweden when I was 28. By the time we move back to Australia I will have spent 20 years in Scandinavia, specifically Stockholm. Not too far from half my life. I’ve had a great time here, but frankly, what excites me more than anything right now is the prospect of going home and living the ‘good life’ we’ve been talking about for a long time.

Dreaming across the globe

Welcome to the birth of our blog! We're Chris (Australian) and Jules (English) and we live in Stockholm, Sweden, with our two children, and we have a dream - some might call it a fantasy - to change our lifestyle in virtually every possible way and live completely 'off the grid'. Stockholm isn't the setting for this dream, but a tiny rural community called Newee creek - over 15,000 kilometres away, in northern New South Wales, Australia.

We catapulted ourselves headlong into this dream two years ago: it started with a relaxing three month vacation/family visit, evolved into regular lets-move-to-australia conversations, followed by a frenzied property-viewing mission, and before we knew it, we were land owners. Owners of a 12-acre, North-facing block, surrounded by pristine bush: signed; sealed; paid for. Gulp. Here's a photograph: