[dezertdwella]

Hello everyone! My wife and I have decided it's time for us to move as we're fed up with dust, flies, mallee scrub and wheat paddocks as far as the eye can see, not to mention the current mouse plague and the EARTHQUAKE (5.5 on the richter scale) we had a couple of months ago!! We have just made an offer on an acreage in the Derwent Valley, and if accepted we will be moving later this year. The closest I've ever been to Tassie is Flinders Island when I was a deckhand in Lakes Entrance some years ago and my wife has never been there either, but we are sure we'll love it. Everyone's saying "don't ya know how cold it gets over there"? But we have both extremes of weather here, freezing at night in winter and absolute scorchers, come late December. One Saturday about 4 years ago it got to 52 deg C! Standing room only at the local needless to say! And it's easier to get warm when it's cold than it is to get cool in weather like that. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone here can tell me if there are many muso's around New Norfolk? I'm a dedicated guitarist of 30 years and would like to meet some people to jam with. I am into hard rock, and 70's metal mostly (ac-dc, sabbath, zepplin etc.)but don't mind a bit of bluesy stuff and play both electric and acoustic. Is there such a thing as "open mic nights" in Hobart or surrounds? I'm 40yo, a tradesman, social drinker and a family man, a wicked sense of humour (so I am told) and a mad keen fisherman. I make friends easily but good muso's can be hard to find. I do know this ain't a music forum but that doesn't matter, does it? You've gotta give me a capital E for effort haven't ya's? Anyway, just thought I'd sus out the situation and see what happens. I think this site will have much usefull information for us, so thanks in advance! Bye for now Jimbo'n'Ranz.

[Shane V]

Hey Jimbo and Ranz :-) Welcome to Real Tas and I hope you have a great time here. Weather...it's everywhere You get used to it hey? That 52 deg would have been a killer...ouch way too hot for me. Tassie has musos everywhere but I'm not in that scene so can't help ya out there mate, sorry. Maybe others will be able to shed some light.
Yeah you get he E for effort...and a gold star too for asking your question
Have a look around and if you have any more questions, just give us a shout mate
I hope everything works out with the Offer and you are on your way south soon

[Mystic]

Hi Jimbo & clan. Welcome to the forum.

I wouldn't listen to folks about how cold it gets down here. I have lived in places on the mainland that get far colder than it is here even on top of Mt Wellington. Was a day last week where Alice Springs had a lower top temp than we did anywhere in the state. Tassie is not as cold as people seem to think it is. When I was living in Armidale NSW avg overnight winter temp was around -12 (have never seen that here) and during the day if it got to 10 we thought it was a heatwave. Actually used to go swimming in the local creeks on days around that. Tassie is not cold by comparison.

Can't say anything for certain about musos in the Derwent Valley, but I have noticed at least one of the pubs in New Norfolk has live bands. Hobart has a very active live music scene as well, and is not far from that area. If you look around the area I don't think you would have a lot of trouble connecting with similar people.

Best of luck with the move, and I am certain you will both love it down this way. Hope we see you around here a lot more.

[dave]

G'day mate welcome to the forum, cant blame you wanting to go to Tassie, I'd be there in a flash if the boss would allow it! 52degs, yep we regularly hit that, but we've had some -2's and -3's as well with daytime temps hovering around 12 in winter, a cosy fire and an ale or three soon fixes that!

[dezertdwella]

Hi, and thanks for making us feel so welcome to your beautiful island. Sounds to me like we're gonna love the place! We just got home from a friends place and we told him what we're up to, and turns out he lived around the Deloraine area for about six years and built a house on a block with timber he bought really cheap, green, direct from a sawmill, stacked it up in his shed to dry in the correct way of course, and he couldn't speak highly enough of the place. He reckons there's so much to do and see over there and he misses it heaps. Got to down to 0.5 here last night by the way, missus said there was ice on everything when she knocked off from nightshift this morning (lucky she works indoors!!!).ha ha. The property we want to buy is apparrently about 300m above sea level and gets a bit colder than in the valley below, so the r/e agent said, but I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a problem, I just wanna give your department of agriculture or it's equiv. a ring and ask few questions and see if we can grow the fuit trees etc. we would like to grow (we're into permaculture) if we tick all the boxes it's a goer for sure. We are wondering if we will have tassie devils on the property, I keep forgeting to ask the agent damn it. How close to New norfolk are they found? Anyway I will hopefully be there for an overnighter in the next couple of weeks (if the bank comes to the party pending eval on this house we don't wanna sell) for a building inspection minus the usual termite inspector we need over here. And didn't that blow us away? No house eatin' termites....wow!! Anyway, cross ya fingers for us, we are guessing we'll get an answer by friday....far out, I'm gettin' a bit shakey!! Might have a scotch or two tonight!!! As for muso's, I'm sure I'll find them....I can spot a metal head a mile away! Good schools and a safe community in such a beautiful place, with so much history.......We can't wait to join ya's! Snow capped mountains out the loungeroom window and a forest out the back door.....AH the serenity!!! Talk a glass eye sleep wouldn't I! Bye for now.

[Mystic]

Exciting times ahead for you all. from the sounds of your overnight temp it won't really be much colder where you are going, so nothing to be afraid of there.

What part of the Derwent valley are you moving to? new Norfolk, or one of the small towns around there I guess. Not sure if there are too many devils around that way, though I don't see why not. As a consolation the rivers around there are platypus friendly, especially the Tyenna.

Sometimes the higher spots are warmer than the valley's depends on how quickly the sun drops. I am about 300m above Queenstown, while Shane lives on the other side of town in the gully. The sun drops at his place about two hours before it does here, and his place chills down a lot faster than mine. He will be feeling the cold creeping in, closing the house up, and getting warm, and I can be sitting out front enjoying the warmth of the sun. he also tends to get a lot more frosts than I do. All depends on the orientation of things.

Yeah, leave your termites behind, they won't like it here anyway

You might want to check out this website from the DPIW which should give you the contact numbers you need for info on growing trees. Permaculture info might be best sourced from thePermaculture Association of Tasmania

Best of luck and I hope all works out well for you.

[dezertdwella]

Hi Mystic, and thanks very much for info, and the links as well. Will have to keep ya posted on the location for now, more than one suitable property and we're prepared to "play the game" with the real estates, but around New Norfolk area is the plan. Growing around there rapidly, so we have read, so good place to buy at the moment I reckon, such awesome value for money etc. I really look fwd to going trout fishing, as never been before though am no stranger to fresh water fishing. It sounds like it's pretty reliable. Is it unusual to come home without a feed? Sure hope that's a yes!! Also wonder about fresh water crays/yabbies, can ya catch a good feed of those if ya lucky or are they hard to come by? Glad we found this site, it's great. Thanks for the well wishes too. Bye for now.

[Mystic]

Glad the site is useful to you and hope the game plays your way.

Not really into fishing myself, but I know the Tyenna river produces trophy trout, and most lakes are well stocked from what I hear. Again, not too sure on yabbies and fresh water crays, unfortunately. I know up north there are giant freshwater lobsters, though if you so much as look at them the wrong way there are very heavy fines.

With Hobart expanding the New Norfolk area should be set to grow nicely. Not far to commute to Hobart for workers either, certainly a lot closer than the trip I used to do from the top of the blue mountains in Sydney to the centre of the city each day. Glad those days are way behind me.