DANGERS of living in the country - What I wasn't expecting in the first hour

We had a gruelling road trip from NSW down through Victoria with an overloaded horsefloat on a scorching 43C day with 2 dogs, a cat and 2 chickens in the canopy on the back of our ute. Of course a blowout ensued.It was all hands on deck in the blazing heat to fix the problem.

The animals really suffered, which sent all our stress levels pretty high! In the end the cat rode in the cab with us in the air conditioning. The others seemed better when we wet them down to be cooled by the airflow.

Crossing Bass Strait onboard The Spirit of Tasmania, in a lovely cabin, we enjoyed a tasty meal and next morning went down to the car deck to find... the spare tyre was completely flat. Thanks to some lovely people parked near us, we were able to pump up the tyre and make the 30 minute trip to our new house without incident.

Upon arrival we gave a huge sigh of relief and went inside to our empty house. I brought my box of kitchen stuff to make a cup of tea. We had barely walked through the place when 20 minutes later the first movers truck arrived with most of our household furniture.Thank good ness they are big strong blokes!

Within an hour I was directing the movers where to place furniture and redirecting them to move it again when it didn't work! Box after box was trolleyed in, which was quite overwhelming when I thought of all the unpacking. Suddenly there was a shout from the front verandah. A HUGE black snake slithered out from under the house and down the south side, in the long grass. I swallowed down the bile in my mouth and tried to reassure our daughter it was ok. The snake was relocated and we continued to unpack but my nerves were tattered.

As soon as we had unpacked the lawn mower and whipper snipper we started slashing the long grass around the house, removing cover for snakes and other crawlies. There were clouds of flies trying to get into the house, in your ears etc. Apparently the unusually warm dry summer has resulted in a plague of flies. When we drove into town to stock up on fly traps and fly spray we found everywhere was running low. The town was lovely however. A true country town - neat, clean, colourful in a lovely location right on the river. A good sign to me is the war memorials are lovingly tended. It shows respect. I look forward to getting to know my local town well. I've already noticed there are at least five charity shops!

Later that night we heard the thump of wallabies around the house. Cute, but we knew they are also in plague proportions, devastating the land. Culling is a necessity in rural Tasmania because wallabies no longer have a natural predator. The Tasmanian Tiger was wiped out decades ago. We have created such a nice habitat for them to breed. wallabies and pademelons

I went to bed dead tired. But within a couple of hours I was throwing up violently and this continued ALL NIGHT, every 20-25 minutes. I spent the next two days and nights sleeping on the sofa to be near the bathroom. A great way to begin our new life, eh?

It was a week before I started eating properly. My friend who moved down  two years ago said she had felt the same, and also very tired, with stomach and headaches. The local doctor told her its an actual medical condition. The stress of selling your house, buying another and relocating interstate is huge and life changing.

Well, don't I know it.