site
contact
newsMan living in caravan at Menzies
This poor guy is being hounded by the local shire council:
...what you can see behind him, are "quarter acre blocks".
I have been to Menzies, and was curious about those "blocks". When the town was originally gazetted, these blocks were marked out, and were sold to individuals. But, no one ever built anything there, and these blocks appear for sale every now and again, asking between AU$3000 and AU$5000 (about US$2000 to 3000), as the owners try and offload them to someone else.
Meanwhile, the shire council collects rates on these blocks.
The "town" of Menzies is in the Shire of Menzies, and there isn't much there. As I recall, the Shire offices, a diner for travelers, a pub. Most of the "blocks" are, as I recall, not in sight of the main road. They are just harsh desert terrain, you wouldn't know there are any "blocks" there. I don't recall much in the way of roads to them either, tracks maybe.
Anyway, this fellow bought one, put a caravan on it, and the Shire Council is charging him AU$50 per day for "illegal camping".
Apparently, this situation has come about because of one petty official on the Shire Council.
My God, there are so many illegal activities where official turn a blind eye. There are people camping illegally in car parks in Perth, there is prostitution. It is recognised that police and government officials have the discretion to sometimes turn a blind eye. This fellow is in the middle of nowhere -- leave him alone!!!
EDIT:
Mr Gopel's block is in Suiter Street (meaning, dirt track, at best). I was curious to see where it is. Yep, same place where I looked many years ago, some distance out of the town. See map here:
http://www.realmark.com.au/listing/364761/118-suiter-street-menzies
Those blocks I have seen advertised privately. This link has history of block sales in Menzies, however I think those are only ones sold through estate agencies or via the major listing sites such as reiwa.com.au:
https://reiwa.com.au/sold/menzies/land/
Tags: ethos