Two years ago, Ian and Maggie Hutchinson set out to establish a sustainable farm in Ahuroa and part of realising that goal was the installation of a prized Comet Windmill.
The 80-hectare block has been farmed since the late 1800s by Maggie’s family under the Berger name.
The couple have been restoring it since they purchased it in July 2016.
“While we’re still young enough to take care of the land, we wanted to restore the farm to a more natural state and have a strong element of sustainability,” Ian says.
“The windmill provides a unique way of distributing water on the farm using a renewable energy source, and the water in this area is of a pristine quality.”
The Comet is placed at one of the highest points on the farm, 70 metres above the proposed new house on the property, and it puts 100psi of pressure in the water supply.
The fan has a diameter of seven metres and the tower is 11.5 metres high.
All of its components were brought over from Australia and it was assembled over a week.
“Maggie and I drove from Brisbane to Sydney in March last year to check out the Comet factory in Macksville, where we decided to buy a windmill.
“These have been installed all over the world and we believe this is the first one to require a building consent.”
The most recent plans Ian could provide to council of the structure were from 1927 and he admires the functionality of the old technology.
“It’s made up of materials such as cast iron and has hardwood bearings but only needs servicing every 75 years.”
To reach water, a 15-centimetre hole was drilled 20 metres deep. This was then fitted with a round casing to prevent the hole from naturally collapsing in on itself.
A 10-centimetre hole was then bored a further 200 metres through solid rock to reach the aquifer.
Most Comet Windmills are built on flat land and require a header tank that holds water above ground so that it can be gravity fed. But because of the height differential between the windmill and the planned house, the Hutchinsons’ two 30,000 litre water reservoir tanks near the windmill can be sited at ground level.
Comet has been building windmills since 1879 and they are found all over the world.
Some of their windmills can draw over 750,000 litres per day, half the contents of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The Hutchinson’s windmill also requires a large capacity as it will be distributing water to all of the surrounding paddocks to fill troughs for farm stock.
To encourage wildlife to areas not occupied by stock, the couple planted 20,000 native trees last winter.
“It’s amazing how many animal sounds have returned since we started planting.”
This winter they will plant a further 150,000 natives.
