This (Unencumbered) Life.


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The Old Bell Bakery, c. 1912



We are Baby Boomers – the year of our birth defines us.  We avoided the Vietnam War (by the pure chance of a lottery draw), we cut our cultural teeth on Woodstock, Sunbury, the Stones, the Beatles, Billy Thorpe, Deep Purple, Johnny Farnham, the choice of half a dozen jobs when we left school, flower power, children at an early age (contraceptive pill notwithstanding), no thought of super – just work and a yen for life. 

Personally, we had our children early, worked, struggled constantly, had limited time and funds for travel.  We raised boys, took them surfing and camping, lived the ‘hippie’ lifestyle, kept chooks, grew vegies, bottled fruit, baked cakes, moved from east coast, to west coast, then back again.  Life was good and finally we jumped on the investment bandwagon in the 90’s, bought, renovated, sold, moved, made money, lost it – spent it, like quicksilver it came and went. 

Suddenly – at almost 60 – life is not quite as we anticipated it would be.  The thought of not working just doesn’t occur – although it would be nice if it could be that work was a bit less of a necessity.  There has been a long spell of travel, philanthropy, doing stuff we have always dreamed of and always promised ourselves we would do, if we ever had the money.  Still, however, we have the anchor of an unwanted mortgage – until recently.

We had been looking for a reprieve from the frantic lifestyle of our home – living in a much-loved holiday destination is sending us quietly crazy – and the country has beckoned for a while.  Other folks surf the net for electronics, porn, music, videos – I surf for real estate.    How does one, tiny, inexpensive property have escaped my laser research?  Because it was under the $50,000 minimum search criteria, I think. 

So we are now the proud owner of a beautiful old sandstone building, formerly the town Bakery, built in 1912, in the small town of Bell in the shadow of the Bunya Mountains in SE Qld.  So much history there for the embracing – if we have no true roots of our own, then we will happily graft onto somebody else’s roots.  It will be a labour of love to restore, and a joy then to live within that small stone haven.   SE Queensland is full of these lovely little communities – races and rodeos, art shows and gymkhanas, bowls clubs and garden shows, proud little schools and beautiful small churches, golf clubs and walking trails, every weekend a market to be had somewhere nearby,  hard working country folk and ratbags escaping the modern era  – so much to offer and the trade off is.......... well, I haven’t quite worked that out yet.    I don’t for a moment buy the argument that as we age we must all cluster around our doctors and hospitals, nursing homes and services – waiting to die, encouraging illness and neuroses.  Personally, I’ll take my chances with what life has in store for me -  preferably, I want to fall off a mountain in the Himalayas, pack on my back, eyes wide open to take in the view and launching joyfully into the next adventure. 

So much to tell about this little place – but for us, the price tag of $30,000 (and yes, we put it on our credit card and got the Frequent Flyer points)  was worth every cent for something incredibly precious and rare.  We shuffled some funds around, paid off the card and – VOILA – Grand Designs Bell was born.   A few weeks after purchase a piece of paper arrived from the solicitor – it was the title to the property, registered in our name.  We had never actually seen one before, they had always gone directly to Mr Big Four Banker.   Please feel free to join us  on 12.12.12 when we throw a 100^th birthday party for our beautiful little building  -  finally, a place of our own. 



West across the Downs



Someone else's big plans





Watch this space for earth works