November 2020

     Then our water tank got delivered! Here it is on the back of the truck which was towing a trailer with more tanks. The company was in Brisbane so must have left pretty early in the morning to get our place by about 9am. They were called Select Tanks and were very easy to deal with in every way. The long vehicle wasn't able to go up our driveway, so he pulled over to the side of the road and dropped off the trailer, and then just drove the truck up our driveway.

     Josh says for the unloading of the tank, they laid down soft mats, rolled the tank down a ramp off the back of the truck, rolled it over to the tank stand and stood it up as it wasn't heavy. We had our friend come round to give a hand too. I was at work at the time, so by the time I got home it was already sitting happily on top of the tank stand that we had made. It's very shiny! We decided to get a stainless steel tank as we required either a metal or concrete tank for bushfire resistance. Most people around here just get plastic tanks are they are cheaper, but most of them melted in the bushfires we had 3 years ago and I saw a lot of people getting new plastic tanks to replace them, which seemed quite short-sighted. Also plastic carries risks of contaminating your drinking water with unhealthy chemicals.

    Concrete tanks are hard to find around here, and have a reputation for cracks. Regular metal tanks will rust out in not too many years and they have an inner lining of plastic anyway - not good for bushfires! So for only a slight increase in cost (I believe it was $4,400 including delivery), we decided on stainless steel which has the advantages of

- pure clean drinking water

-won't rust

-bushfire resistance

The corrugated sides of the tank match very nicely with the corrugations of the exterior of the house.

Attached to the tank is a 65mm storz fitting, which is a requirement for bushfire regulations. This means that a Rural Fire Service truck can easily attach their hose to our tank if they need to use our water to protect our place from bushfire. There is also a regular tap for easier access to the water.

     So that the empty tank didn't blow away we ordered a truck of water to be delivered. The tank is 22,000 litres so we ordered 10,000 litres. This was at the height of water shortages so there was quite a wait for people getting the water from the Casino council, but lots of companies to choose from.

Here's a pic of the inside of the tank after the water delivery!