TallowwoodPlace

Although the small township of Tinbeerwah lies between the urban areas of Tewantin and Cooroy, it has retained much of its rural character and, as part of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, continues to embody the essence of what attracts nature lovers to the Noosa Hinterland.

Mt. Tinbeerwah offers opportunities for rock climbing and abseiling while the fire hut at the top of the mountain provides magnificent views to the Cooloola Coast, Noosa river and Noosa Headlands as well as great views of the Noosa Hinterland including Mt. Cooroy and Black Mountain. The path leading from the car park to the fire hut is not always open to the public because the last section of the path to the fire hut involves walking over rocks which become slippery during adverse weather conditions.

Carters Ridge is a tranquil place where you can get back to nature and enjoy your surroundings.

While Eungella Dr enables access to the Black Mountain transmission towers, this short elevated road at the same time is distinctly rural in character and provides breathtaking views to the Noosa coast including views of the sand blows at Lake Cootharaba, Mt. Tinbeerwah and Mt. Cooroy. Mt. Ninderry and Mt. Eerwah feature prominently in the south.

Ridgewood is a very nice rural Noosa Hinterland location as well as an area of high conservation value within the Noosa Biosphere Reserve.

Tallowwood Pl in Black Mountain on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is located within the Noosa Biosphere Reserve which was established as part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme in 2007. The latter aims to find ways in which humans can sustainably interact with their environment.

Tallowwood Pl is a two lane, no through road with a turning circle at the end of the street. Myrtle Ct and Flooded Gum Pl in Cudgerie Estate are accessible from Tallowwood Pl via a pedestrian walkway located at the turning circle of the cul-de-sac. Tallowwood Pl is a 60 kmh speed zone.

According to local council maps, Tallowwood Pl is zoned as a 'Medium Bushfire Hazard Area' as well as a 'Landslide Hazard Area'. At one time the road had to be repaired by the local council after a landslide. However, the road has not been subject to further landslides during prolonged rain periods since then.

There are eighteen acreage properties in Tallowwood Pl ranging in size from 0.4011 ha (0.99 acres) to 5.5420 ha (13.69 acres). For the purposes of land ownership, Tallowwood Pl lies within the County of March and Parish of Tuchekoi.

Properties, to varying degrees, enjoy undulating views to Mt. Cooroora, Mt. Pinbarren, the sand blows at Lake Cootharaba, Mt. Tinbeerwah, oCoroy Mountain, Mt. Ninderry and Mt. Eerwah.

Like the rest of Cudgerie Estate, Tallowwood Pl is zoned as 'Rural Settlement'. This provides for an idyllic, environmentally friendly setting where farm animals can be used as four legged lawn mowers, milkers, etc. While roosters are permitted, a restriction of 100 birds applies regarding the keeping of poultry.

However, it is advisable to check with the local council as to whether a particular property consists of 'usable land' or whether there are also environmental protection (EPA) restrictions in place due to the presence of certain vegetation species.

All buildings on a property must be contained within the 'building envelope' as defined by the local council for each property.

Existing Utilities:
Each property in Tallowwood Pl has two fixed utility connections, namely underground power and a fixed line telephone connection. Properties are partly self-sufficient with regard to water and sewage by means of rooftop rainwater harvesting systems and onsite septic systems / wastewater treatment plants.

a. Underground Power
Besides storms causing power outages due to transformer malfunctions or fallen power lines outside Tallowwood Pl, power supply also used to be interrupted because the old switching unit in Tallowwood Pl was unable to cope with demand at times. Reliability appears to have increased since a new, larger switching unit was installed. However, the use of surge protectors / surge suppressors as well as uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS) for sensitive electronic equipment is advisable.
Quite a few houses in Tallowwood Pl have grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems to reduce CO2 output and power bills. As the average Australian home currently consumes between 18 and 22 kWh of electricity a day and a 1 kW solar PV power system in the Brisbane area on average produces 4.2 kWh of electricity a day, 5 kW of solar panels and a 5 kW inverter are needed for an average household in South East Queensland to be roughly carbon neutral as far as electricity use is concerned.

b. Fixed line telephone connection
Fixed telephone lines in Tallowwood Pl provide poor dial-up internet speeds. We experienced dial-up internet speeds of only about 20 Kbps.
Intermittent problems are also being experienced when using a fax machine or computer fax even if a dedicated fax connection is being used.
Although availability checks on websites of internet service providers (ISP) may indicate that ADSL broadband "is" or "may be" available in Tallowwood Pl, these preliminary checks do not guarantee that ADSL is actually available and we were subsequently advised that ADSL is not available in Tallowwood Pl (neither ADSL 1 nor ADSL 2/2+) because of the pair gain system used in the street and the distance to the exchange. Pair gain systems, like the rest of the copper network, are going to be decommissioned in the next few years due to the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
However, as yet there is no information on the local rollout of the National Broadband Network which will not only provide broadband internet services but also fixed line telephone and fax services in the future. In particular, it is not clear whether a fibre-optic cable will be rolled out in the street or whether the area will be serviced by significantly slower fixed 4G wireless connections (at a rate of 12 Megabits per second at the edge of a wireless base station's coverage area and the fixed 4G wireless connection speed therefore only being a fraction of the potential 1 Gigabit per second fibre-optic cable speed regardless of the location within a fixed 4G wireless service area) in the future.

Mobile Phone Coverage:
Tallowwood Pl is currently serviced by three mobile phone networks. The signal strength is usually good at the street or higher level. However, signal strength decreases in lower lying areas where the signal may also drop out. Mobile phone coverage is also not assured within buildings.

The current broadband options in Tallowwood Pl are as follows:

a. Wireless Broadband (Wireless DSL via a radio installed on the roof and an indoor data adaptor)
Tallowwood Pl is serviced by towers at Black Mountain and Sunrise Hills. The latter requires a radio with a Yagi beam antenna. This provides both download and upload speeds of up to 2.0 Mbps while there is little lag during VoIP conversations. However, the latest consumer electronics may already require higher internet connection speeds in that e.g. one manufacturer currently prescribes a minimum broadband internet connection speed of 2.5 Mbps for its range of internet ready consumer electronic products such as internet ready TVs. Monthly data allowances are low in comparison to those of most ADSL plans.

b. Mobile Broadband (internet connection via a 3G mobile broadband router or 3G USB modem)
UTMS (3G) and HSDPA (3.5G) mobile broadband coverage of Tallowwood Pl is currently provided by three mobile phone networks. Mobile broadband coverage is not assured within buildings. There are many factors which influence mobile broadband download speeds, with the download speeds experienced within a mobile phone network therefore fluctuating constantly and widely. For Tallowwood Pl, the typical download speeds currently range from as low as 300 Kbps to as high as 20 Mbps. Slow broadband speeds (even just temporarily low bit rates) entail obvious drawbacks such as the interrupted viewing of past episodes of TV programs (Catch up TV) when streamed to an internet ready TV or viewed on a computer. This phenomenon is known as buffering issues / problems. Because the download limits of mobile broadband plans are similarly low to those of wireless broadband plans, fast broadband speeds are likely to lead to a rapid consumption of the monthly data allowance. In particular, the low download limits hinder the streaming of full screen videos / movies at high resolution as well as live media streaming. Upload limits may also be an issue if a HD camera is used with an internet ready TV for the purpose of video chatting with family and friends. Some mobile network operators bar VoIP connections.

c. Satellite Broadband (Ku- or Ka-band)
Pros: Available everywhere (any satellite broadband provider)
Cons: Signal degradation during bad weather, a noticeable lag in voice communication during VoIP calls as a result of higher latency, low download and upload limits, generally dearer than comparable terrestrial internet services

In the absence of ADSL, the download limits of the available wireless, mobile and satellite broadband plans are generally much lower than those of ADSL plans, especially considering that some ADSL plans are even unlimited in the sense of there not being any data limits at all. While slow broadband internet connection speeds e.g. cause buffering issues when watching past episodes of favorite TV programs on demand, low download limits also hinder media streaming, especially live media steaming such as listening to internet radio stations or watching live online TV broadcasts.

TV:
There are currently 16 free-to-air digital terrestrial television channels available with the strongest signal at Tallowwood Pl being obtained from the TV transmission towers on Black Mountain servicing the Gympie area (Gympie transmitter). A local community TV channel is not available in regional Queensland. The analog TV signal from the broadcast site on Black Mountain will be turned off on 28 May 2013.
The TV transmission towers on Black Mountain broadcast all terrestrial TV channels on the UHF band. UHF phased array TV antennas with horizontal polarisation seem to provide the best TV reception at Tallowwood Pl.
PayTV and free-to-air satellite TV reception is available via a Ku-band satellite dish.
Members of ethnic communities have access to free-to-air satellite TV broadcasts from countries such as Greece as well as some Arab and African nations via, e.g. the Ku-band Australia beam of Intelsat-8 (IS-8 at 166°E).

Radio:
Not all popular FM radio stations are being broadcast from Black Mountain. FM Stereo reception is poor for those radio stations which use transmitters at Mt. Goonaneman near Biggenden (Wide Bay) or Dulong Lookout near Nambour.
DAB+ digital radio is not available as the rollout plans for DAB+ digital radio services in non-metropolitan areas have not been finalised. However, together with the free-to-air digital terrestrial television channels, four free-to-air digital terrestrial radio stations are currently being broadcast from Black Mountain (reception via a conventional digital ready TV antenna).
Free-to-air digital radio stations from countries such as Italy and Greece as well as some Arab and African nations can be listened to via, e.g. the Ku-band Australia beam of Intelsat-8 (IS-8 at 166°E).

Water supply:
Properties in Tallowwood Pl collect roof water in onsite rainwater tanks which are used as the primary source of drinking water (potable water). Drinking water may have to be bought from water carriers during dry spells (at approx. $160 per 10 000 litres of drinking water).
Considering that approximately 60% of the water used by an average household ends up as used water from hand basins, baths, showers and the laundry (greywater) and a further 30% is used for toilet flushing, the need to buy drinking water during droughts may be eliminated if sufficiently large drinking water storage tanks are combined with a 'secondary greywater system' to treat greywater to a high standard and then store the high quality recycled water in a separate tank for use in the laundry, toilet flushing, washing the house, car or boat, watering / irrigating the garden or for using it to replenish a pond / water feature.

Sewage:
Properties in Tallowwood Pl either have a septic system or onsite wastewater treatment plant.
Septic tanks require pump outs approx. every 4 years. The frequency of pump outs can be reduced by means of periodically adding doses of environmentally friendly microorganisms and enzymes, which digest the waste in the septic tank while also having the added benefit of keeping the soil absorption field unclogged.
Onsite wastewater treatment plants require regular service during which sludge accumulation levels are determined and noted in a report which is then forwarded to the local council. Depending on the extent of usage it is necessary to desludge the primary chamber of a domestic wastewater treatment plant every 3 to 5 years. The recycled water from onsite wastewater treatment plants is safe for use on gardens only.

Waste Collection:
Waste bins (green lid) are serviced every Monday. Recycling bins (yellow lid) are serviced every second Monday.
As there is no garden waste service (brown or lime lid) in the Black Mountain area (garden waste goes in the bin with the green lid), a composter which produces both compost and organic liquid fertiliser (leachate / compost tea) is recommended.

Public Transport:
There is no public transport within more than a 4 km radius of Tallowwood Pl since the council's twelve month trial of a local on demand minibus service ceased on 30 June 2011. Railway stations on the Nambour to Gympie North railway line as well as bus stops for bus services to Nambour and Noosa Heads can therefore no longer be easily accessed from Tallowwood Pl without private transport.

Road Access:
Some roads in the Gympie and Sunshine Coast area, including major roads such as the Bruce Highway, are subject to flooding during periods of heavy rain.

Please note that while it has been endeavoured to provide as accurate and up-to-date information as possible, no express or implied guarantee is given regarding the accuracy or completeness of the above information. The above information is being provided as a guideline only and all relevant authorities should be consulted to obtain the latest information regarding the above location.

Situated within the fauna and flora rich Noosa Biosphere Reserve (established as part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 2007) and largely comprised of rural properties, hobby farms and acreages, Black Mountain is an ideal place for all of those who feel that they have an obligation to care for the land, and to do so, engage in sustainable living practices.