OntheBeach:
You are right, I live on a property and have no problem with storing ULP fuel.

The Generator that I quoted is an Odes 8/9KVA, powered by a Honda engine. It is electric start (with remote start and shut-down) and with a full tank of approx 20 litres, will power all the house, with the exception of the Airconditioner(which is an ageing 1HP LG reverse cycle, and very heavy on electricity) for around 16 hours of constant running. NB: I must mention that living in a regional area, I try to be prepared for anything that may happen, and run 3 Refigerators, 2 Deep Freezers and a Bar Fridge, so I have a reasonable current draw.

I have an exterior red warning light on the side of my Power Box, which is illuminated when the Mains Power is restored, thus saving me the hassle of ringing neigbours to check if the power has been restored.

I would NOT be without my generator set-up, as it has saved me from losing hundreds of dollars worth of food, plus the fact that in the hot Summer ( which now seems to be with us most of the year )I still have the ceiling fans to cool the house down somewhat.

I have thought ahead and have a 10KW roof-top Solar array, plus a Solar powered Bore, a Honda Firefighter powered Bore and a rooftop spray system (in case of bushfires). NB: The rooftop spray system is only covering the side of the house that is in danger from the trees, as obviously I cannot spray the other side of the roof because of the Solar array!

I cannot hear the Generator running as it is behind my garage and is pretty well muffled, but for anyone worried about upsetting neigbours,
a simple buried in the ground muffler system works well, as most of the miners at Coober Pedy and Mintaby in SA will attest to.

I hope that this has been helpful to anyone now contemplating purchasing a Generator

A large part of the problem with the power is the greenies. In many cases they have area managers running scared, & in some arrears have infiltrated the organisation.

We were losing power about 20 times a year, & Tamborine mountain had outages a couple of times a week. A smart local found the area manager, [one of the greenie ratbag brigade] interpreted the 2 meter clearance rule to include 2 metres above the lines as well as side clearance. Thus we had overhanging gum trees ready to droop onto lines in heavy rain, & drop branches in wind.

The local arranged for the manager to attend a community association meeting, where he was goaded into telling us he was not going to turn the place into a treeless desert, just so we didn't have power outages.

When the tape of this was played to his superiors, he disappeared & the new manager fixed our problem, by clearing above the lines. Unfortunately it is getting back to too many outages again, hence my need for a gen set.

Perhaps some greenies require squashing again.

In the cities there is the inheritance from the ridiculous political correctness that decrees that Australian natives were to be always preferred (except strangely for Jacarandas and the like) and free trees for rate payers and government plantings were all gums, bottlebrush and so on.

In schools the previous shade trees were even removed to be replaced with the obligatory natives, enormous Peppermint Gums and the like that threaten life, limb and structures. Native is sacred!

From the green PC of recent decades we now suffer power 'outages' from the incessant dropping of heavy gum branches onto power lines. At the schools and public areas there are plenty of jobs for contract tree inspectors, who wouldn't detect the pipe up a gum if you milled it and don't comprehend that a young trees is likely the same.

Fire Risk
I sincerely hope that one day some courageous fire authority will go to bat against the prevailing political correctness and inform governments of the fire risks of the low water usage plantings of highly flammable natives in the suburbs and in parks - with heaps of litter. One day with the wind the wrong way on a fire and it will be 'Remember Canberra's fire disaster', but too late.

Everyone is forced to vote and I support that. The problem though is that only a small number of the easily led and useful idiots is required to put in yet another glib, narcissist career politician with PC bible in hand and spruiking the sort of BS that the equally frivolous and ill-informed media love.