Small holding on abandoned land.

I have permission to hunt on several privately owned forestry and native bush blocks and adjacent to these, I discovered that there are a couple of abandoned overgrown blocks side by side. One is 29.9 acres and the other is 13.9 acres. Looking up the local records the owners are absent and no rates have been paid on the blocks for decades. I got thinking about seeing if I could purchase them to set up an off grid homestead.

The land is slightly rolling and leads down on one side to a river that has an old narrow vehicle access. They are approximately covered 1/3 native bush and 2/3 overgrown gorse/scrub. A creek runs through a narrow gully that seems to be wet most of the year. There is a north facing hill face that gets sun during the day (we are in the southern hemisphere). Most of the native bush is on the shady faces.

Obviously it all rides on being able to purchase the land, but my initial thoughts were:

Cut an access track up to the sunny north facing face, to situate a small dwelling about 3/4 the way up the property.

Dwelling would have wood/coal range cooker, solar power on roof, rain water collection and composting toilet.

In cutting the access in I'd have to cross the creek, so at the same time create a small dam to give a good water storage area. This could be done without contravening any local codes.

I would leave the native bush as is and clear the scrub. So assuming roughly 1/3 is bush and say another 1/3 is tracks, dwelling, dead ground, etc. That leaves 1/3 for farming. So say 14 acres for food production; couple of cattle for beef, a few sheep, free range chickens and large vegetable patch.

I'm thinking 14 acres would allow me a good area to work with, but would appreciate any thoughts on this.

I know it is jumping the gun a little, but as we are approaching the shortest day in a couple of weeks, I intend camping out there for a couple of days to look for the best site for the dwelling regarding all day sunlight etc.

I will be in town in a week, so will call into the council to make some inquiries with them about the blocks. I have obtained abandoned land before with the councils help, but that a was much, much smaller area and was adjacent to my property, so it was of a more of a tidying up a property boundary line sort of thing.

Money wise, I have about half the rateable value on hand and could save the other half in a year or sell some stuff to get it sooner, but I doubt it is going to be a quick process, if it turns out to be viable.

I would appreciate any thoughts or comments, especially regarding the size of area available.

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Small holding on abandoned land.