Our new home in Atherton

Yes, we’ve moved to Atherton and discovered in mid-September it is still winter.  After two nights of freezing I realised that one can’t get warm with layers of clothing and layers of sheets and doona covers.  So I went and bought a doona to fill one of the covers.  Aaaah.  Toasted bliss.

  Tony bought this from the second hand shop.

Great-grandfather's dressing gown, circa 1950.

      How did the move happen?  To quote Tashi, ‘It was like this.”

     On 12 July we returned from a glorious week-long visit on the Atherton Tablelands back to our rental house at Rainy Mountain Place.  There was a letter from the property agent.  It advised we could, when our six month lease expired on 19 September, renew for another six months or vacate.  

     Prior to signing the lease back in March, I specifically addressed the post-fixed lease situation and negotiated verbally to remain on a month by month tenancy for a small increase in rent. 

     But stupid me, I had only made notes rather than have the condition included in the lease.  I reminded the agent of our agreement and she kindly agreed to offer a three month fixed lease.  I realised how vulnerable tenants are.  With only two month’s notice (sometimes less), a tenant can be homeless.  Perhaps my vulnerability came from living at 10 Pearl Street for 20 years and becoming a little complacent.   

    Tony and I wanted the kids to feel secure about where they were living.  Seffy heads to high school next year and we want her to start and finish at the one secondary school.

     There was only one solution; we needed to buy a house …. except we didn’t have much money and neither of us had permanent jobs.  In fact, it looked pretty desperate for a while and so I did what helps me cope … bit my nails.  

     Several banks wouldn’t consider an application for a loan where the applicant hadn't been in a permanent job for longer than the three month probationary period.

     I spent many hours at night, gazing at the dimly lit ceiling, wondering where we would end up living.  And I couldn't help thinking about people who were homeless whether they were living on the streets or in temporary shelters or even not having safe, secure and long-term accommodation.  We had a house on TI and family to stay with.  But still, I felt very vulnerable. I needed to find a house to buy and a bank to lend us money.  I cursed the GFC many times, but I chanced upon the Bank of Queensland as I was walking out of Smithfield one day.  I'd never noticed the bank or the branch before.  I didn't know it at the time, but I'd found the Holy Grail.

     To cut a long story short, Cairns property prices, especially on the northern beaches had sky-rocketed with the impending casino planned for Yorkey’s Knob.  We needed to look elsewhere.  We loved Malanda, but there were limited work prospects for both of us. Kuranda was lovely, but property a bit pricey.  Tony might have been able to get work back on the ships in Mackay, but we didn’t want to be far from Tony’s mum or my parents.

     Two weeks after opening “that letter,” Tony suggested Atherton and I couldn’t understand why we hadn’t thought of it before.  We started our married life at the Atherton courthouse and indeed, TK and Sutchy started their lives at Atherton hospital. We’ve been visiting the town and surrounds since.  The climate’s perfect, there’s plenty of services and the people are friendly.  And I had been hearing for years the high school is fantastic, just what we needed for Seffy.

     We thought about it for three seconds.  We bought a house that settled, in a mildly ironic way, on 12 September, two months exactly after receiving “that letter.”  

     It took a few days to move up, but Tony and Kibby did most of the work in this.

     When I was booking the trailer, I noticed in the fine print that “the hirer must pay an amount at the point of hire to cover the cost of insurance.”

     So I rang Trudy at Move Yourself.

     “Oh, don’t worry about that, love.  It’s included in the price.  It’s just a technicality we need to put in.”

     I always get nervous when traders mention 'technicality" or "technically.'

     “So if we have an accident the insurance is covered.  We don’t need to pay a premium.”

     “Well,” said Trudy, “if it’s just a scratch or something little we just fix it ourselves, but technically if there’s more damage the insurance is included in the price.  It’ll be fine.”

     As a lawyer, I know nothing is ever fine.  If something can go wrong, it will at the worst time and in the worst way.  Law reports are full of cases in which important considerations were not considered by the parties and things weren’t “fine” at all. 

     But it was late Thursday night and Tony needed a frigging trailer so he could be at the house the next day at 3 pm just after settlement.  I wondered if we would qualify for legal aid in the event of an accident involving the trailer.

     “Thanks, Trudy,” I said, scribbling notes of our conversation

     I paid via credit card and made the sign of the cross.

     Tony did three trips and allowed me to accompany him on the third and final one because he reckoned I stress him too much when he’s driving.

     And guess what happened with the Move Yourself trailer?

     Absolutely nothing.

     Except the divorce-provoking argument between Tony and I on the way home with the empty trailer behind us.  He wanted to overtake a Maui campervan driven at 80 by, I guessed, a European tourist. Tony was worried about the convoy of cars and trucks behind us.

     I won the argument only because I screeched long enough, “just wait, for God’s sake, what is it about men having to go fast and overtake other cars when we’ll only get home three minutes earlier If we survive which is unlikely because we have a huge trailer attached to us and we’ve got the kids in the car and you can kill yourself on your own but not with us in here and are you even listening to me?” 

     I heard giggling in the back and discovered the kids were in stitches.  Time to quit and gaze at the tail lights of the Maui van.

     We didn’t end up divorcing and we are very happy in our new home and our new town as we start new lives.

     Although when he puts on his antique dressing gown in the evenings and mornings, I can’t help calling him ‘Athe.’

Ready to make the last trip to Atherton.

Last thing unloaded.

All our goods and chattels in the LUG.

While Tony and Kibby did the second trip on Saturday, Seffy and I picked up her new puppy, Pippa Jane, from YAPS.

This is Pippa when she first met Pepper and Lucky.

Cutting vines from the gate to keep the dogs in.

Success.  A cobbled-together, dog-proof gate!