Rockley village is interesting for it’s complete lack of built infrastructure. This means no town centre, no shops, no town water and no sewage system.

Every house in the area has to be self-sustaining on it’s own rainwater and septic tank, which typically means bigger is better. A drought-prone area with an annual rainfall of 700mm, even flushing the toilet or taking a shower makes you pause for a moment.

When you consider that a single flush toilet can use as much as 11 litres of drinking water, our big question was how to make the best use of our precious rainwater?

During our septic system investigation we considered everything from composting systems, incinerator toilets, biocycle treatment systems, reed bed filtration, worm treatment systems and traditional septic tanks.

Although interested in repurposing our grey water on the property, it became apparent that any treatment system required regular maintenance inspections, and at best would produce sub-irrigation for grass areas (not for food).

The incinerator toilet, definitely the most entertaining option on the list, had the most potential to go wrong with a wiring system and no local service technicians. And the worm farm required an unsightly 5m pipe sticking out of the ground right next to the house.

So in the end, we circled back to a traditional septic system with an engineered design that accommodates site constraints of low rainwater harvesting capacity, 1:3 grade, property boundaries and proximity to intermittent water sources.

Since a healthy septic system needs a minimum amount of water to operate properly, we chose to go with a low-flushing toilet (rather than a no-flushing toilet).

The last step on the septic system will be connecting the house up to the septic tank inlet in the days ahead.

With so many alternative options in the market these days, I’ve been quite surprised that a traditional septic system has proven to be the best option for our location.