Townsville - House Sit

We are starting our world trip with a 3-month house sit near Townsville, a city on the northeast coast of Australia. We weren’t really planning on such an extended stay, but when Beth and Ian, the homeowners, approached us based on our profile on aussiehousesitters.com.au, we decided a long break with free rent and nice weather was too good to pass up. Normally when we house sit we are primarily meant to look after the homeowner's dogs and/or cats. But in this case our only duties are to maintain the swimming pool, water the gardens, mow the lawn, and look after a couple of chickens. We even lucked out in not having to rent a car as the couple’s daughter is letting us use hers for a nominal fee. Her car is technically for sale, so if it does sell we’d have to rent from then on, but for now we have economical wheels.

Townsville is a city of 180,000 but we are in a semi-rural location about 20 km (12 miles) from the town center. Out here the lots are large and fenced in, with modest to middling houses and lots of large garages, sheds and other outbuildings. Many places have chickens, a few have horses, and nearly every yard features multiple dogs whose very important job it is to vigorously bark at us every time we walk by.

Beth and Ian’s house is fairly new and really quite nice and tidy with three bedrooms, 2 baths and multiple sitting areas, both indoors and out. Our favorite is the big veranda (I think that’s what the Australians would call it) which is next to the swimming pool. It’s still a bit cool to use the unheated pool – although Deborah did brave it once – but that may change as we progress out of winter. Right now we’ve had very pleasant days with highs in the mid to upper 20s ᵒC (mid 70s to low 80s ᵒF) and lows in the mid to upper teens ᵒC (60s ᵒF). And this morning we saw the first real rain since we arrived two and a half weeks ago. Perfect, really. That’s why we wanted to be here in this part of Australia during their winter. During the summer months (Dec-Feb) it apparently gets much hotter and wetter. We only expect to be here until mid-October but the schedule, as always, is flexible.

Our house outside of Townsville, Australia.


Living room (Australians would probably call it the lounge).


Kitchen and dining area.


Jalousie windows everywhere for maximum air flow.

Back of house.


Another sitting area.


The swimming pool (duh).


Veranda by the pool.

Our charges.


Typical neighborhood dogs - when four just isn't enough.


First big shopping day. We are going to be here awhile.




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