Lilydale, Tasmania

About this house sitting position in Lilydale

A quintessential Tassie bush retreat off the grid!

Hi, we are Romina and Lars and would love to find someone to sit our lovely rural home!

Our residence is a truly unique house to sit, located just out of Lilydale, about half an hour's drive from North Tasmania's bustling heart of Launceston.
While Launceston has everything on offer from gorgeous little cafés, an amazing Saturday market, great outdoor experiences to a broad range of art galleries and museums, our beautiful home near Lilydale will be your well deserved bush retreat after a day's exploring.

Nestled within a lush forest on the slopes of Mount Arthur - one of Tasmania's 158 Ables (mountains higher than 1100 m) - the house is an owner-built three bedroom home that lovingly embraces its forest surroundings. Built mainly from wood and other natural materials, featuring a huge North facing decking and soaking in the natural sunlight through the large windows, the open plan living area with open fireplace and combustion cooking stove creates a rustique yet homely ambience.

The house operates on environmentally friendly hydropower from the property's own creek. Our electricity supply is a 240 volt AC /50 Hz system, so it's a bit more limited than in the big smoke, but we balance our demands easily so that we don't use too many different implements at any one time. Of course we will ensure you are familiar with the way this robust but alternative system works before your house sit.

Since it can get cold during Tasmania's winter and because we are fortunate enough to have filtered creek water running through our pipes, taking hot baths is not only allowed but encouraged. Any excess power from the hydro scheme heats up our water and needs to be used up. We promise it makes for a lovely relaxing time in the tub!
The filtered creek water that ends up in our taps is just beautiful to drink, too!

We have 4 chooks who kindly supply us with about 2 free range eggs every day. All the lovely ladies ask for in return is a bit of food, your kitchen scraps, some water and a 20-minute chook house clean-out once a week. We think it's a great deal and love them for it!

You will share the house with our shy but friendly and incredibly well behaved tabby cat Persia. We adopted her from a cat shelter one and a half years ago and she has come a long way. She will open up to you once she gets to know you, especially if you're female. For some reason - and this lies in her past which is unknown to us - she seems a bit more apprehensive towards males but this shouldn't worry you. Once she's gotten used to you, she will demand some TLC and delight you with her feline antics. She's also pretty good at catching mice.

There is a big vegetable garden but since it's winter you won't have to do anything despite a bit of watering in case it stays very dry. You may however enjoy the homegrown herbs and rhubarb!

Some things to consider:
Because the house is built on a slope and has a steep-ish, sometimes slippery rocky path leading to the front door, you should be reasonably fit and sure-footed.
While we love children, we think a handy, quiet couple would be more suitable to sit our home to make sure our shy cat who is not used to noisy activity in the house can remain within her routine as much as possible.
Although we have a very good internet connection, please note that we don't own a TV. So bring your books to read or watch the abundant wildlife from the kitchen window.

Services in Lilydale (10 minutes drive):
- Bardenhagen's IGA supermarket with a large range of products
- Bardenhagen's hardware store
- Takeaway café with book exchange and DVD hire. They do amazing fish 'n' chips!
- Petrol station

Some great activities close by:
- Mount Arthur (1.188 m): From our front door it is a 1.5 - 2 hour bushwalk to the summit with some rock scrambling involved towards the top. It makes for a great walk on a clear day and offers panoramic views over North Tasmania.
- Lilydale Falls: A short walk leads you from a pretty reserve to a lovely waterfall. It's just outside of Lilydale and well worth the visit, especially after a rainy day.
- Lilydale Market: Every second Sunday of the month
- Wineries: There is a vast amount of wineries around Lilydale offering wine tastings and degustation platters, including Jansz and Pipers Creek. Some are closed during winter though.
- Bridport: A lovely coastal town about 40 minutes drive from Lilydale.
- Launceston Harvest Market: A fabulous farmers market held every Saturday with a great atmosphere, music, local produce and yummy food options.
- Everything in and around Launceston of course. Read more...