Seeking sitter(s) to care for 12 year old Bull Mastiff cross Labrador bitch, and keep established trees alive.

My dog is an excellent watch dog and protector and loves people but not so friendly with other animals especially dogs so you cannot bring any pets. Having a dog lover here will greatly lessen her stress of my absence as she’s getting on! She has her own room outside for the night but spends time indoors with a bed on both verandahs.

This housesit is for an adventurer (or couple) who wants to experience living off-the-grid and all its challenges. The house is a “bush home” with mod cons, water tanks (rain water), septic system, solar power only, gas stove and satellite internet. There is a generator for appliances like a vacuum cleaner, an iron, gernie or anything else that draws high wattage. There is no TV and radio reception is poor inside the house. There is satellite internet available and if you have Telstra service and a wifi calling facility on your phone you can make calls, otherwise there is no connectivity to the mobile network and no land line. There are two inverters one for the lighting and electrical appliances and one for the fridges and freezer so there is generally enough power to run everything but needs a watchful eye with weather conditions changing and interference from trees/shade, cloud cover.

This could be a long term arrangement if you are a gardener; into syntropic agriculture, organic farming, biodynamics etc and want to set up a market garden. There will be mowing involved both ride-on and push, whipper snipping and weeding. As I grow organic food no herbicides or pesticides are to be used. I grow many greens, pumpkins, sweet potato and various fruit trees.

The house is screened both front and back verandahs which are designed to bring the outdoors indoors,;all open plan, mod cons and comfortable, in an isolated area of FNQ 3.5 hours north of Cairns. There is a neighbour close by to assist when you need to get away for a day or two to shop or whatever. This would suit a single or couple who enjoy bird watching, bushwalking and gardening, working from home. The property has water frontage. And a boat for your use. There is an abundance of birdlife and wildlife: brumbies, cattle, dingoes, boar, kangaroos and wallabies and freshwater crocs.

The house has a filtration system for all water coming in from the catchment with ultra violet light to kill bugs and the rainwater tanks have a filter as well. There is a petrol pump to run the irrigation system for the gardens and sprinklers need to be moved around and valves turned on and off to get full pressure in areas. There is also a solar sprinkler that can be moved around during the day. This is after the wet season so it will begin to dry out and watering needs to be done at least every 2nd day taking a maximum of 1.5 hours. There's an outdoor fire place and plenty of wood to have fires in the evening watching the sun set and the nights are full of millions of stars.

The closest township of Lakeland is 35kms north, a roadhouse at the Palmer River (licensed) 27kms south, Cooktown is 1.5 hrs drive north, Mt Molloy 1.45 hrs south, Mareeba 2.5 hrs south and Cairns 3.5 hours south. Shopping is good in Cooktown but if you want more variety and other goods then Mareeba is the town to go to or you can travel down the Rex Range to Port Douglas and Mossman which is the same distance to Mareeba, though a more scenic and winding road.

More information provided to interest parties.

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