Hi VK4TMH,
I thought you may have been 'one of us' from your answer.
I have two earth stakes outside the shack, they are tied with 4mm diameter wire to a common rail at the back of the bench. Everything radio related, including the antenna barge board pole, is tied in there.
I haven't bonded it to the mains earth as the bond point and stake are a fair way away and hard to get to. I might try a couple of experiments as the main switchboard is adjacent to the workbench.
I doubt it will make much difference to the noise floor. 60m away is a power transmission stanchion from which I can lie in bed and listen to the crackle and pop across the insulators as well as railway line 100 or so metres away. We've had a little rain so it is worse. We need a big squall to clean the insulators. Even if I can't hear it, I know it is there when I plug in my Strat copy, it somehow knows we are in the transmission line magnetic field...
73 DE VK2CSW