Back in 1981 during my first attempt at domesticity in Townsville, I had a retired neighbour who confided in me that, after a lifetime of earning lots of money in mining, he had buried it all in kerosene tins in his garden - I kid you not! - so that he would qualify for the age pension.
I pointed out to him that he missed out on more interest than he got in welfare but he was not persuaded because, as he said, pounding the table, "I paid my taxes for it!" He was still pounding the table when I said good-bye to him in early 1982 to once again take up work overseas.
I returned to Townsville a little over three years later, and noticed that his house had been sold - click here - for a mere $72,500. I was tempted to tell the new owners to "Dig here!" but perhaps they didn't need to as they made enough money on the resale at $230,000 eight years later.
The next owners weren't quite so lucky when they resold another eight years later for a mere $285,000 (which seems to confirm two things: that, statistically, Australians sell their houses every seven years, and that real estate booms are followed by long periods of stagnation).
I don't know if my old neighbour dug up those money-filled kerosene tins before he moved away (or passed away), or if they've since been dug up by the owners during 1985 to 1993, or the ones from 1993 to 2001.
If not, the current owners are sitting on double a windfall: still all that buried loot and a property now valued at more than $600,000.
