Rural Life Bridgetown
Buying a Property
There are many considerations in selecting the property that will be right for you. Cost is just one of them. Selecting your ideal property starts with your intentions and vision of what you wish to do on the property. For instance, if you plan to run cattle commercially you will need a lot of land compared to someone who wishes to be self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables, which can be achieved on an area as small as one hectare. Of course, these depend on the intrinsic quality of the land. By that I am referring to the landscape and slope of the land, the types of soil on the property and the rainfall. Add to those whether the property has other problems such as residual soil chemicals or signs of tunnel erosion.
See our video at the foot of this page.
You, as purchaser, have a responsibility to yourself to do a duty of care study of properties in which you are interested. Will there be any caveats on the property, such as easements for power lines, are there declared pests and weeds that you are required to control, does the property have sufficient water storage for your needs and, if not, are there suitable sites for sinking new dams.
This section contains material on bushfire prone areas and local rainfall figures. The Bureau of Meteorology has rainfall data for most centres. When assessing expected rainfall, the best figure to check is the Modal Rainfall. This is the annual rainfall that is received most often. It is generally lower than the mean annual rainfall but is more indicative of what you may receive from year to year. Since a step down in annual rainfall in the southern parts of WA was recorded in 1975, the modal rainfall from that date will be more useful than the longer-term figures.
The section also contains a checklist of things to consider in your duty of care study and where you might expect to find answers to your questions.
Lastly, here’s a section on buying a rural property from the DPIRD website:
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/small-landholders-western-australia/buying-small-property
Watch out for our project’s new video on Buying a Property coming soon.
See the accompanying note on ‘Most important information’ for a property buyer and the note on ‘Bushfire prone areas’, which contain very useful information for people looking for a rural propert