Thank you Brandon7 and others for commenting on this subject. Speaking of "black plastic", Oregonwoodsmoke, it is even worse material to use, in my opinion. Over years, it tends to become semi-disintegrated, so if you pull it, it falls into pieces. Oh, it was such a mess, such un-sighting! We gardeners like to dig around, try around, move things around from time to time, and it was such a sinking feeling to put a forceful dig into the ground and felt a sturdy fabric underneath it. Basically, we are tangling the unnutrual material with the natural soil, and that makes it very un-natural to gardening with it even if it works somewhat. But I think I had said enough on this point.

Ameriprise - the company I work for - builds a house for a Habitat family every year. I didn't work on the house this year but at the dedication I brought six pots of pink coneflowers. The family is from Ethiopia. They were thrilled to get them for the side of the house.

I first came to GW via the Kitchens Forum many moons ago when we bought this house and needed to put in a kitchen. Period. The "kitchen" was a big square room, originally the garage, but it had been made into a family room with a "kitchen" along one wall. I know the two previous owners. The one who owned it in the 60s-80s is the fanciest decorator in town. The cabinets on that one wall were gorgeous, presumably very expensive, black Poggenpohl, but hardly any of them, and no drawers. Zero. Not even for silverware -- just one tiny pull-out in one of the base cabinets. There was a matching bar in the middle of the room. The sink was very tiny, the stove barely worked. There was a Sub-Zero fridge (the only thing we kept), but that may have been added by the next owner, who didn't cook, either, and had gone so far as to cover two of the 4 little stove burners with a wooden tray to keep liquor bottles on. The most surprising: the room had wall to wall white carpet -- yes, WHITE CARPET in the kitchen. The decorator's son told me that we were going to do the first cooking at that house in 40 years -- his mother used to joke about installing vending machines. What was really astonishing was that when we bought the house, a few people said things like, "And I know you must LOVE that kitchen!" -- you can sure tell who cooks and who just looks at a kitchen. They weren't even joking; they thought it was dramatic and gorgeous, and I suppose it was. But we figured the cost of a complete remodel into our overall price for the house, and we replaced everything from the ceiling to the floor (and 4 inches below that), added a wall and a pantry and an island and a door and a gas line and .... Only the refrigerator (with new doors) and one window are the same. I mean ... white carpet?!

Daniel, We are in Brisbane in the same area as you and have had an onsite system for 12 years. The initial cost was about $8k. We chose an Envirotech aerobic sand filter system. Over that time we have had to replace three pumps at a cost of approx. $560 each. We have had to have annual inspections at a cost of approx $120 pa for the last 8 years. We now also have to supply chemists reports each year at an average cost of $160 pa. and this is for a system which was "state of art" We do not pay any sewerage rates (I dont know if others do) The system has been trouble free - just general maintenance when pumps wear out and we are glad we chose the one we did. I have heard from neighbours who are less than happy with the performance of some other systems. You do have to be careful of the cleaning products you use(not a problem - I am too busy gardening to get precious about cleaning) and when we installed BCC would not allow the water to be expelled above ground so could not move water to where it was needed,had to have in fixed contoured position (This may have changed) I was disappointed by this as the water goes to trees which no longer need it - so I am using water on plants that I would not normally water, and the water is not available to use in other areas on more needy plants. All in all I would say it is not a cheaper option - but you might get a warm feeling knowing that your sizeable expenditure has helped save valuable resources, and then you may not!!! $8000 will buy a few well sized tanks, but then BCC will probably bring in a levy for anyone with their own water storage. If I had the choice of connecting to the sewerage and with the water situation I would go for connection to the system and use the money saved to install tanks to harvest water. I like the idea of being nearly self sufficient with water and at least I could choose where I watered.