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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
20 Sep 2024
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Description
We are a Christian husband and wife team, in our 50s. In 2016-7, we bought a property which includes several old buildings, one of which is heritage-listed, and 2 cottages, in addition to our House, with local river frontage, and adjoining a local Landcare area.
We had fun hosting and learning from travellers and enjoy seeing our valley with new eyes, and look forward to the return of international visitors.
Our accommodation would really suit a couple or 2-3 friends, so you have company in the 3 bedroom cottage, but we are happy to have singles who appreciate some alone time as well as sharing time with us.
While enquiries are welcome, we will not book anyone in who is not already in Australia. It would be helpful when enquiring if you could tell us if you are travelling on a Tourist Visa or WHV.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Stunning NSW Sapphire Coast Rural Area - a true gem. Wonderful whalewatching nearby in late Winter-Spring. Seals, rays and snorkelling year-round.
We have both travelled and want to pay forward the hospitality we were shown. We want to learn especially about international foods and help with language learning. Fiona loves cooking and sharing new and old recipes. It t is her happy place, and learning new recipes is fun.
We are happy to share some tourism activities, when it fits with our schedules.
We like whales, swimming and snorkeling, and local festivals too. Workawayers pay their own admission to attractions and meals when out.
We have kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, bandicoots, possums, antechinus, echidnas and platypus in the wild, and in our garden or river, sometime some are either in or under the cottages! There are also many many native birds.
We are really enjoying our workaway experience so far and love having talks about lands we haven't visited yet.
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WE WILL BE ABIDING BY ALL COVID-19 RULES, there is sufficient outdoor space to exercise, be away from others, and our village is a really great place to be to minimise crowd exposure. The cottage is self-contained, and although we do prefer fully vaccinated, unvaccinated/single jab is ok.
Help
We own a 7 acre property with 3 cottages and 4 other buildings.
HELP! Gardeners, Cat Lovers, Cleaners, Handyman (or woman)!
There are lot of chores to tidy up the properties, indoors and out.
Lawns need mowing and trees need trimming.
Fiona also especially needs help with housework, because of disk issues in her back.
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We are slowly renovating most of the buildings, including building an outdoor BBQ and entertaining area. One building will gradually be dismantled to reuse repairing the others with recycled materials.
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We expect 20-25 hours help for 7 nights accommodation. Generally, it would be no more than 4 hours at a time, but some days could be longer in exchange for extra days off.
Or less work if you pay a small rent while you have paid work in the area. We are in Postcode 2550, so are in an area of regional Australia for 88 day extensions for plant and animal cultivation and construction jobs, but we don't offer 88-day sign off ourselves.
It would be great to do 3-ish days of intensive work, leaving you the rest of the week for yourselves, skiing, swimming, other work etc. Or a couple of hours each morning plus a weekend day with Scott.
We love taking our visitors to our local beauty points and seeing them through new
APRIL/MAY 2024 UPDATE:
General...
Ride-on Lawnmowing
Housework - ongoing, as vacuuming and mopping are difficult for me, and we have 5 long-haired cats.
Cleaning cat cupboards, bowls and trays
Weeding, whipper-snipping and push lawnmowing
Renovation Projects...
Help relocate and install a verandah
Painting doors
Cleaning and playing "Tetris" with granite pieces to create a hallway floor.
Garden projects...
Tree Trimming - removing cotoneaster and cutting low-hanging branches, stacking offcuts and rubbish in a trailer for rubbish removal
Pruning off lower fruit tree branches
Weeding - We try to minimise chemical use, so some hand-pulling of rall woody weeds.
Splitting logs to make post and rail fence
Making a a stream from the verandah to the pond and paving an outdoor seating area and forming up and concreting some steps.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
German: Beginner
French: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
Fiona is beginner-intermediate French and would like to improve.
Accommodation
Accommodation for WHMs is in a separate 3 bedroom holiday cottage on the property. Wood fire, plus heaters and electric blankets to be cosy in winter. Fans for summer. Wifi access.
We would share several meals together, mostly lunches, plus 3-4 dinners each week, and Sunday Brunch, but you also have some "you" time and we provide food for you to cook for yourselves when we aren't eating together.
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We follow a Covid-safety guidelines
Families would be expected to contribute towards additional food costs for children.
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What else ...
We are just 50km (35 minute drive) to stunning beaches and whale watching in season (they start heading north in May-June, and are stunningly good heading south from September to November), and we are 145km (2 hours) to the snow in season, although sometimes you can build a snowman as close as 30km away. There are also a large number of indoor attractions
including a whale museum, Bega Cheese Heritage Museum and Craft Co-op, Bega Museum, Pambula Museum, and Potoroo Palace native wildlife sanctuary and Panboola Wetlands area to visit. Coastal and mountain National Parks nearby.
We are on a highway that has a daily rail bus service to Canberra, which is 200km, with all the attractions of Australia's capital city. The Rail bus goes from Canberra to Eden, through Cooma, Bemboka and Bega. It also has connections to the Melbourne to Batemans Bay Rail Bus route. There are also buses from Sydney down the coast to Bega, which is 32km away. The nearest airport is Merimbula, which is 50km away.
We have tank water pumped straight from the crystal clear river, and bottled water available on request for drinking and cooking.
We don't have children, but do have 5 indoor pedigree Ragdoll cats.
We are an easy 2km walk from the nearest bakery, post office and hotel. The use of bicycles may be arranged.
The village population is about 400 people.
International Licenses ARE required for driving privileges within NSW at all times. Your home country license is not necessarily sufficient if not in English and will need an English Translation. Translation and/or International Drivers Licence should be arranged prior to travel. We are not able, for insurance reasons, to allow anyone under the age of 25 to drive our vehicles.
We have a STRICT no illicit drugs or plants policy.
We are unable to sponsor people who do not have visas in place already and we only book visitors in once they are in Australia, although we happily answer questions before you get here.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have Fixed Wireless NBN access with unlimited use. Usually good enough for streaming.
Space for parking camper vans
We have 5 acres, with driveway access to external 15amp power at our house, not the cottage.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (14)
We hope to host her again later in the year.
She is engaging, without being intrusive and a pleasure to have around. It was fun showing her around, and she was appreciative of the visit to Cooma and Jindabyne once we worked out that her… read more
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We hope to host her again later in the year.
She is engaging, without being intrusive and a pleasure to have around. It was fun showing her around, and she was appreciative of the visit to Cooma and Jindabyne once we worked out that her… read more
It… read more
We hope they stay in touch while in the area,… read more
We did some fences painting, gardening, housekeeping... We plant a few fruits trees and cut some wood.
We had some big issues with our car during our time there and they give us a huge hand to bring us everywhere it was possible to get it fix and take the road again...
We… read more
I am sure that she will be an asset to any future Workaway host, or employer. We would love… read more
I stayed two weeks and I definitely recommend them and I would be with them again.
Gracias!!
We wish him well on the rest of his travels and recommend him to future hosts. It has been fun… read more
Their property needs hands and time, there is a lot to do, but it is fun.
Fiona is the best cook ever. She and Scott are super hospitable and friendly. They showed us Bega, some beaches, invited… read more
Their property is in a state of "controlled chaos", but it's nothing to be afraid of, and the caravan is in nice condition.
My stay was definitely worth while, I got to… read more
