Swamp Costs

All costs incurred by The Swamp are below. The intent is to make it easy for others to copy what has been done, knowing the rough costs to budget for when copying or adapting for your own ponds.

Initially I intended buying sprayers & seeders & cultivators & irrigators, but after costing them up and talking to my neighbour it made more sense to get contractors in.

Tractor: Massey Fergusson 1835E with bucket & mower & other fittings. The tractor was purchased when I thought I would be buying seeders & cultivation equipment, and gets a lot of use on my property, but will not be used for spraying & planting. Approximately $50000 including GST

Sprayer: Contract spraying approximately $120 per ha with 3.5ha sprayed

Seeder: contract cultivator & seeder used. Approximately $X per ha - with 3.5ha cultivated

Dam Construction: approximately $5000 including clay lining with support and a good deal from my mate Slick of Slickcivil.

Electric Fence: although not needed as I am not excluding stock I was before cultivating, with a cost of about $1000 including GST

Irrigator: when the irrigation guy came out to look at my set up I asked him what it would cost to buy an irrigator. He had done some work for my neighbour recently, so he suggested I lease my neighbours irrigator rather than buy my own. $100 per hectare

Predator Gun: After the first week living on the property it became pretty clear that trying to shoot pests with my current 17 HMR and a spotlight was inefficient. If a Possum was hard to find in the spot light even after being spotted in the thermal handheld my dogs would go absolutely mental. So I bought a Tikka T1x 17HMR with a thermal scope. This made killing pests in the dark far easier. Approximate cost $5000 including GST

Planting: all planting for the swamp has been undertaken at no cost. Oaks have either been germinated from acorns or transplanted as small sizes. Flaxes & other plants have been similarly sourced free of charge.