Set Up Camp By This Billabong

Sun Herald

Sunday March 4, 2007

By DENIS GREGORY

A FAMILY home overlooking a billabong on the North Coast embodies the best features of small rural acreage, its selling agent believes.

Ken Giese, of LJ Hooker Maclean, said in 10 years of selling rural properties he had not seen one with as many benefits as the 1.22 hectare property he will send to auction this month.

"While we have other small acreage properties, we don't have them with permanent natural lagoons like this one," he said.

The property is a 10-minute drive from Maclean and less than 15 minutes from Yamba and its beaches.

The four-bedroom house has spotted gum polished timber flooring in the main area and hallways and marble tiles in the entrance. It has two bathrooms and lots of open-plan living areas.

Sliding glass windows at the front open on to a wide timber veranda overlooking the billabong, which attracts ducks and other bird life.

There are extensive landscaped gardens and a tropical fruit garden.

There is a three-bay shed and bitumen road access.

The property will be auctioned on March 16 at Maclean Services Club and is expected to fetch about $550,000. Mr Giese said the property market had taken off in the area since the Roads and Traffic Authority announced work on a new highway would not affect the area between Maclean and Yamba.

"The market is proving to be quite strong here because the values appear to be significantly less than anything between Noosa and Ballina or Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour," he said.

"For whatever reason it is one of the last areas where buyers have discovered that the values are a little lower for a coastal part of the world. This type of property in the Tweed would probably bring $1 million."

With a population of around 3000, Maclean is a major fishing centre, with the Clarence River supplying about 20 per cent of NSW's seafood and is the hub of the sugar-growing area along the river. Other industries include timber, dairying, cattle and crops.