Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 08:25
Wow, what a response!
Answering each response in turn:
I had expected negative responses along the line of being a dreamer rather that a doer. Which may well be true since we have been thinking about our escape for at least the past five years, and we still haven't progressed very far.
Finding work in the outback seems more likely than in a city. I have an IT degree and age is most definitely a barrier. I managed to get a six month contract just after I completed my degree at the age of 51. I haven't even been able to get an interview since. I once worked as a contractor at a mine in New Guinea so I think I'll research the remote areas a bit more and I'll contact the Outback International people.
The idea of selling our
home was to raise the capital needed to buy a mobile
home. We don't even have enough cash to buy a small caravan, plus we would need a larger vehicle to pull it. Our Mazda 121 would have difficulty pulling even the smallest camper trailer.
We've heard some horror stories about renters wrecking homes, but of course, the income would be very useful. Storage for our "stuff" is also quite expensive.
The
Grey Nomads' register sounds like it could be the answer.
Barcaldine must be a Mecca for
Grey Nomads; it's mentioned as a destination it travelling magazines quite often.
The idea of a reverse mortgage is something I had considered. I picked up a brochure from our Building Society the same day that I posted my original question. The idea of an accumulating debt is frightening and I already have an accumulating HECS debt. We've been mortgage free for almost 30 years and it's something that I would certainly not enter into lightly.
House sitting is another angle that I've looked into but it's another one of those catch 22 situations. One needs a reference but how does one get to sit their first house? It's the same in the IT industry; no experience means no job, no job means no experience.
If we could get $200,000 for our place then our problem would be solved. Property values in country
Queensland are not what they are close to the cities. We would consider ourselves lucky if we could raise $100,000. We sold 720 acres with a large house 15 years ago for $100,000 and the local agents were not interested in handling it because they thought it was over priced. We only got back the money that we paid for it.
The book mentioned is probably similar to the one that we gave our son before he decided to pick oranges. The Internet has lots of up-to-date information about the harvest trail, especially in
Western Australia.
Boredom is another thing that we wonder how we might overcome on the road. My wife spends a lot of her time spinning and knitting and I have many hobbies that probably help to keep us poor as well. Perhaps we could cut back a little.
Finally, we thank everyone for their positive thoughts and I'm sorry if this post is unnecessarily long winded. We WILL put more effort into achieving our goal.
Phil and Lorraine.
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