Eight things we've done since moving to Tasmania
Unbelievably, it’s seventeen years since we took the plunge and moved to Tasmania. We loved it from the moment we got here and haven’t looked back. When I look back at the things we’ve gained that mean the most, it’s a mix of tangibles and intangibles that bring meaning and richness to our life.
Gained a Sense of Space
We live on a small block in a rural part of the island – in a wine region! We’re surrounded by small farms, open paddocks and pockets of bush. It not the wilderness, but it is a peaceful idyll, and that’s what we came looking for.
Got to Know our Neighbours
When you move from a city suburb to small acreage, suddenly your neighbours are further away. But you might find you know them better. When we lived in Brisbane, our friends were scattered across the city and meeting up was a palaver.
Here, we can only just see our immediate neighbours’ houses, but we know pretty much everyone on our road. We don’t live in each other’s pockets, but we hang out with some. And we know way more people in our community.
Drunk Better Wine
We live in a wine region. Yay! Everywhere you look, there are north-facing slopes striped with vines. And it’s not just any old wine they’re producing, but some of Australia’s premium drops. The area around Piper’s River produces sparkling wine which is held to rival Champagne, and it’s an hour away from where I live. That makes me feel pretty lucky – even more so when I’m holding a glass of it in my hand.
Started a Farm
After watching too many episodes of River Cottage, we bought some Wessex Saddleback pigs, and started a small artisan farm, selling pork cuts, sausages and bacon in Launceston’s award winning farmers’ market Harvest. It was bonkers, and financially unadvisable, but we had a ball. Ten years after starting our farm, we closed it. This too is one of the Best Things We’ve Done.
Our adventures in the pork ‘underbelly’ of the gourmet farming world are the subject of my book Saddleback Wife. You can find it on Amazon and in select bookshops and giftshops in Tasmania.
Ate Better Food
Becoming gourmet farmers went to our head and we found ourselves being more appreciative, and more picky, when we ate out. Tasmania has outstanding places to eat, from fine-dining restaurants to bistros and coffee shops. Most take the trouble to source their ingredients locally.
We’ve grown a lot of our own food in a vegetable garden. Oliver made delicious sausages, and now he bakes sourdough. We’ve done food-swaps for wine, salmon, lemons, berries, quinces. And we’ve been stallholders at farmers markets and events where we’ve eaten and shopped like kings and queens of the providore. Food is truly one of Tasmania’s riches.
Kept Alpacas
My husband Oliver once fancied himself an alpaca-whisperer. He purchased two pregnant mares and soon the caramel coloured Charlie and Sophie were born. We woke up on cold winter mornings to see them covered in frost. We watched them freshly shorn and gambolling around the paddocks. We fed them overshot broccoli from the garden and breathed in their grassy breath when they came up close.
Alpacas are the best and cheapest way to keep the grass in your paddocks mown, and they’re delightful, as long as you don’t annoy them. Because it’s true, they do spit – but only if they feel cornered.
Wrote a couple of books
Many people reinvent themselves when they come to Tasmania. I started a blog when we got here, and eventually, that turned into a book about the first few years. Then we started a farm, and I wrote about that too. Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do and Tasmania has given me the freedom and the material.
Raised our Kids
When we moved, we were about to have our second child. I wanted to put down roots and raise our family. If we’d thought about it, we might not have moved quite so far away from our extended family, who are on the other side of the world in the United Kingdom. But we gained that other sort of family – friends. We made instant friends through playgroup and then school and still know those people now. Our kids love their island home. Now that they’re teenagers, they appreciate what we have here and they have a great base from which to explore – and come back to.
They used to say that when landing in Tasmania, you’d move your watches back by an hour and your attitudes by ten years. We think that’s a good thing. We found the life we wanted. We’ve had incredible adventures and become part of a community with a lifestyle we love. It’s not all champagne and roses, especially as we get older and having five acres to maintain gets harder. But we still love it.
If you’re thinking of moving to Tasmania, it’s all here waiting for you, these and many other great things.