Location

The farm is located at 401 Cootharaba Rd, about 12 km from Pomona, about 20 minutes from Noosa, half an hour from Nambour, about 40 minutes from Gympie and about 2 hours drive from Brisbane, via the ever improving Bruce Highway. Bitumen all the way unless you insist on using some real back roads. About 3 km east is the intended route of the future Noosa to Maryborough Road. For which road improvements are allready being carried out on the road from Tewantin. This route is already available but includes gravel roads and very minor sealed roads at present.

There's a small shopping center in Pomona, with a large IGA under construction. Another one in Cooroy and a Woollies in Tewantin, with the usual towns shopping area. A further Woolies with some speciality shops in Noosaville, as well as quite a number of other shops in the same area. A new shopping center has been built nearby with a Woolies and a Big W, a number of speciality shops, a Woolies Discount Service station. Then there is a large shopping area at Noosa Junction, including a Coles supermarket, not to mention the boutiques of Hastings Street in Noosa Heads. Then there is Nambour, the rest of the Sunshine Coast and Gympie. Public Hospitals at Gympie, Noosa and Nambour and doctors clinics and dentists all over the place, including a new clinic in Pomona.

The Farm

The land is located on the eastern side of the southern end of the Wapunga Range. Parts of it were steep, but these were sold off as subdivisions, 5 in all, mostly 10 acre blocks. Originally it comprised 183 acres, of which 136 remain. Soils are a sandy loam on the lower sections and clay on the upper ones, determined by the shaly mudstone on sandstone strata of the range. The main Creek, running paralell with Cootharaba Rd is mainly seasonal, although there is usually a partly sub-terranean flow in the creekbed. Two dams are on this creek. A third small dam forms the headwaters of a small creek in the middle of the property and there is another small creek by the northern boundary. All these combine eventually to form Sandy Creek further downstream. There are good NW slopes on the three main, rolling ridges that make up the topography. Most of the land is easily traversed by fourwheel drive tractor. There is a small area of swampy ground in the NE corner. This and a small area near the bottom of the main creek are the only parts subject to occasional frosts in winter.

The place was originally a dairy farm producing cream for the Pomona Butter Factory. At the time the present owners took it over it carried some 110 AIS cows. Unfortunately the dairy was antiquated and not suitable for whole milk production, so the new owners switched to smallcrops, growing mainly beans, zucchinis, melons, pumpkins and later strawberries for the southern markets. Also a short foray into angora goats. Being inexperienced in farming activities there was mixed success and farming activities largely stopped some 20 years ago. Since then the place has been generally left to it's own devices, with income being derived off-farm.

Water Supply

As previously mentioned, there are three dams and there is also a bore. The bore, located in the creek, below the house and near the old dairy has been supplying the house with water for over 30 years now. We are not connected to any town water system and therefore not subject to water restrictions.

Possible farming activities

Cattle. The place used to carry some 110 dairy cows when it was 183 acres, should carry over 50, maybe 75 head of beef cattle. Fences need attention. Small cropping suffers from the fact that most such activities now take place up around Bowen and Bundaberg. This area used to be one of the main suppliers of winter beans to the Sydney and Melbourne markets, but mechanisation up North has closed that down. Specialty crops might be a possibility. Bamboo shoots perhaps, there is a small stand of P. Pubescens, what the Chinese and Japanese call 'Moso' which could supply low cost planting material for a larger plantation and the Australian Asian community is keen on the shoots. Bamboo for poles and timber would be another possibilty and there are several small stands growing.

The House.

Built some 40 years ago, largely from materials that were once part of the original farmhouse. It has been described as "quaint". Three bedrooms, a lounge room, kitchen, bathroom. Toilet on the mainly enclosed back verandah. A partial front verandah facing south. Wood floors. Tongue and grove walls.. Water supply is from a bore in the creek bed, pumping to a tank above the house and gravity fed from there. Single phase power. Telephone connected. Broadband is now also connected. Thirty years ago the house was your typical pimple on a pumpkin farmhouse, surrounded by grass. Practically the whole farm visible from the house. Two mango trees, one of them common. Today the place is surrounded by fully grown trees of many different kinds, most of them flowering in season. Lots of shrubbery, ferns, bromeliads etc. Also in need of TLC. There is a large shed (two car and workshop) just below the house. There is a small wooden shed down by the creek.

Contact details

e_mail: rukurt@westnet.com.au

Home Phone: (07 5485 3146)

Snail Mail: P.O. Box 113 Pomona Qld 4568

3 Bedrooms 1 Bathroom Double Lock Up Garage Farm and to Ocean Outlook North West Aspect Land Size: 136 Acres

Electric Hotwater Own Water Supply! Between Pomona and Boreen Point