Dundas, Queensland

About this house sitting position in Dundas

The house

The house itself is an unusual architect-designed, modern-rustic bush home set amongst the trees. It is a two-level house with two bedrooms and one bathroom, polished timber floors and high ceilings, with the bush visible from almost every room.

The main level has a large open-plan kitchen, dining and living area opening through wide sliding doors onto an elevated timber deck. The kitchen has a substantial island bench and gas cooking. Upstairs there is a further open office area surrounded by large windows, and the bedrooms also have extensive bush views. The bathroom includes a freestanding bath looking directly into the forest.

The house is deliberately designed to connect with its surroundings rather than seal them out. It has excellent natural airflow and lots of opening windows and doors, but there is no air-conditioning and the windows are not insect-screened. In January and February this means sitters need to be genuinely comfortable with warm Queensland weather and with living in a bush environment where insects and other small wildlife are part of the experience.

The house is completely off-grid but has a substantial modern power system: approximately 7 kW of solar generation with 20 kWh of battery storage. Gas is supplied by 45 kg LPG bottles, and water is from rainwater tanks. We will explain the systems fully during the pre-sit orientation, in ordinary use there is very little for the sitter to do other than use power and water sensibly and let us know if anything unusual occurs.

There is ample outdoor space, but no property maintenance, mowing or land-management work is required.

The house sits within approximately 43 hectares of private forest, almost all of which is a gazetted Nature Refuge adjoining D'Aguilar National Park. It is exceptionally private: the experience is much closer to staying in your own secluded bush retreat than conventional suburban house sitting.

A few things you need to be comfortable with:

This is a genuine off-grid bush property, not a conventional house that happens to be in the country.

- 4WD access is essential. The final access is via a winding unsealed bush road/driveway and a suitable four-wheel-drive vehicle is required.
- There is no air-conditioning.
- The windows are not insect-screened.
- Electricity comes from solar and battery storage rather than the grid.
- Water comes from rainwater storage.
- The toilet is a simple off-grid system and the sitter may need to change over the toilet bucket/container during the stay. We will demonstrate this beforehand, it is straightforward.
- There are no pets or livestock to look after, and sitters cannot bring pets or other animals onto the property.
- The limited jobs are essentially watering some plants, keeping bird/wildlife water topped up, keeping an eye on the house and systems, and occupying the property while we are away.

This would particularly suit an experienced 4WD traveller, nature lover, birdwatcher or someone already comfortable with rural/off-grid living who would enjoy having a secluded private Nature Refuge largely to themselves for three and a half weeks. Read more...

Amenities

Home has external security cameras