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Padma has just returned from town with a bootful of groceries and a copy of the "Independent", a free rag which offers a few pages of local news wrapped in real estate advertisements.
It features a stunning property at 183 Annetts Parade, Mossy Point with a price guide ABOVE $4 million. If you don't believe me, here's the ad:
INDEPENDENT, Thursday March 24, 2022
The house was built in 1965; it sold in 1995 for $180,000, and again in October 2020 - that's just eighteen months ago! - for $1,200,000.
The auction is set for Saturday at 2 p.m., so we should know soon after whether they made a three-million-dollar profit in just eighteen month!
P.S. Well, the auction was a flop with the property being passed in on a vendor's bid of $3.8 million. It is now re-advertised with a price guide of $4.1 to $4.4 million! Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
P.P.S. If you want to know what a property is worth, realestateview.com.au is a good starting point.
Buying shares isn't like getting married: you don't do it for life, although I've been holding BHP shares now for a quarter of a century. In all that time they've only been testing the $50-mark since last year when they first topped it in May.
Their daily closing price topped $50 for six days in May, thirteen days in July, and another twelve days in August when they reached $54.06. After that, it was all downhill to a low of $35.56 on 2nd November.
Apart from monitoring the economy and the state of the world, buying shares is knowing how much pain you can endure, and I've kept enduring plenty of pain while collecting some juicy dividends along the way.
The pain has finally paid off, with BHP briefly topping $50.06 on 3rd March, then again topping $50.38 on 7th March, and making a more convincing run-up to $50.92 (briefly tipping $51.12) only yesterday.
Trading Central comments, "We have detected a 'Commodity Channel Index' chart pattern formed on BHP Group Ltd (BHP:ASX). This bullish signal indicates that the stock price may rise from the close of 50.92."
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (I'm a native German-speaker and refuse to mispronounce his name just because it sounds offensive) coined the term 'genius' in the 1700s, defining it as the rare capacity to independently understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.
"The Genius of Charles Darwin" is a three-part television documentary, written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. It was first shown in August 2008 on Channel 4, and won Best TV Documentary Series 2008 at the British Broadcast Awards in January 2009.
Watching it is a great way to spend a rained-out afternoon. I just did!
Our "electricity distribution network operator", ESSENTIAL ENERGY, last year decided that one of their power poles on our property would henceforth be ours. Beware of a "electricity distribution network operator" bearing gifts!
So I wrote, "Under normal circumstances, I ought to be grateful if someone suddenly stuck a new label onto something and in doing so conferred ownership of it onto me, even though I had never bought and paid for it. However, in the case of your sudden transfer of the power pole now marked with the label 'PP40217', I am a little reluctant to accept this 'gift' since it is not so much a transfer of ownership but a transfer of responsibility and, with it, all costs associated with it.
The power pole marked 'PP40217' is far too large to be a private pole, and thus far too large to be maintained by a conventional contractor. Unfortunately, it has to be so large because you chose to run the overhead service from a very long distance across the whole breadth of my property.
If, instead, you had run your distribution main all the way to my front gate (as you have done with all my neighbours), an aerial consumer's mains of less than half that distance could have been run to a connection point on a much smaller 'private' pole (in which case I would have placed it underground a long time ago as I did with my existing connection to the house).
Could you please call me at your convenience or, better still, call on me on my property in person, so that we can discuss this matter with all the facts before us?"
Of course, I shouldn't have even bothered because their reply, within days, was - blah, blah, blah, blah and blah - totally predictable:
"Thank you for taking the time to write to us outlining your concerns around private pole ownership and the configuration of the electrical assets on your property. We are unable to attend your property and have tried to contact you by phone and haven’t been able to reach you, so please allow me to address your concerns via email and to expand on our prior communication.
As an electricity distribution network operator, Essential Energy is responsible for maintaining and repairing the electricity network to the customer connection point located on private land. Landholders are responsible for network maintenance beyond this point (as, similarly, all owners of home and business premises are responsible for internal wiring maintenance).
Our determination of the connection point is based on the definition in the Service and Installation Rules of NSW – the industry standard for customer connection to the electricity distribution system (which reflects provisions under the Electricity Supply Act 1995 (NSW), the Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014 (NSW) and AS/NZ 3000 Wiring Rules).
I have described the connection in the image below from the Service and Installation Rules which best describes the connection at your property.
The distribution system does not include any conduit, pole or other structure supporting protecting or enclosing electricity lines where those assets are part of an Electrical Installation.
If you would like to review the NSW Legislation and the NSW Service & Installation Rules, you can search for this information online as they are publicly available.
Beyond the customer connection point, landholders are legally responsible for the electricity assets including power poles that connect their premises to the network – these are referred to as private electricity network assets or private assets.
Generally, private power poles and other network assets located beyond the connection point to the switchboard or meter were installed at the instigation of a landholder and have always been owned by them or by subsequent landholders. Unfortunately, confusion about ownership may have arisen when properties changed hands or were subdivided. In some cases, this has been compounded by Essential Energy undertaking maintenance or defect rectification work at its own expense to manage potential safety risks. To resolve any past confusion and clearly indicate ownership going forward, Essential Energy Asset Inspectors are progressively ensuring that all power poles on a customer’s property are appropriately labelled and recorded in Essential Energy’s Asset Management System.
Under the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER’s) Ring Fencing Guidelines applicable from January 2018, Essential Energy can no longer undertake this type of rectification work at no cost to the private network asset owner. Landholders are required to engage an appropriately qualified Accredited Service Provider and are responsible for associated costs.
A thorough review of Essential Energy’s asset management records confirms that under the definition of Private Electrical Assets, power pole PP40217 is and always has been, privately owned. This decision was not made at the time of the last inspection as it has always been the case.
I can confirm that the configuration and installation of pole PP40217 was done to the relevant standards of the time and that PP40217 also meets today’s current standards and can be maintained by an Accredited Service Provider.
To help private asset owners better understand their responsibilities, Essential Energy provides a range of information on our website (www.essentialenergy.com.au/privateassets), including FAQs, examples of privately-owned network asset configurations, common overhead power pole and powerline defects "
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and blah.
I had one shot left in the locker, the ombudsman! No, not the one in Sweden from where they borrowed the name, but the one in Sydney who is paid by the same paymaster as the state-owned Essential Energy.
Their reply was another blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and blah; and with already one more branch having broken off, which could just as easily have fallen across the powerline (again!), I sent off one last email:
A similarly heavy and healthy gum tree that just dropped, luckily NOT above the powerline
"This matter had been bounced back to you by the Ombudsman, after which someone called Jason phoned, pretending to do a 'search' of documents with the foregone conclusion that it was always going to end up as 'my' Private Pole. However, he did confirm that you are responsible for keeping the powerline clear of vegetation. When I suggested that this wasn't being done properly, the same person defended it by saying that you would not cut back 'healthy' trees despite the fact that gum trees don't wait to become 'unhealthy' before dropping their branches.
This is exactly what happened about a week ago, when a branch came down onto the powerline and hung there, and I had to call your emergency line to get two cars out to clear it from the powerline. When I pointed out the other branches dangerously overhanging the powerline, I was again told that this would have to wait until the next time your crew came through Sproxton Lane. Why wait until an accident happens? However, if this is your modus operandi, at least conform to me now that if a falling branch pulls down the powerline again due to your inaction and with it 'my' private pole, you will be responsible for both reconnecting the powerline AND straightening 'my' private pole."
I promptly received a computer-generated response telling me that "Your request has been registered and we will be in further contact with you in the near future."
Two heavy branches poised above the powerline which are likely to break off at any time
That "near future" is becoming a distant future as I've been waiting for almost two months now for a reply. In a last-ditch effort I sent them the "Yes, Minister" clip and inquired if "the matter is under consideration" or if "the matter is under active consideration". I'm not holding my breath!
I arrived at Cairns airport after a three-hour direct flight, jumped into my hire car, a cute little Hyandai Getz, and drove the short 25 kilometres into the mountain ranges behind Cairns to Kuranda, the Village in the Rain Forest. Checked into the Kuranda Hotel and enjoyed my first cold beer of the day. Later I went for a stroll up the main street of Kuranda and passed the Faraway Tree Building which I remembered from the real estate website as being the location of the two strata-titled flats for sale in town. As I looked around the building, a voice from above bailed me up. No, it wasn't God but Marshall, one of the tenants, who works at "The Ark" and who wasted no time in familiarising me with all the local gossip and introducing me to the only owner-occupiers in the building, the retired couple Pat & George Mcfarlane."
[continue reading here]
I wrote this over eighteen years ago, and since then have kept up my interest in the little Village in the Rain Forest in the hills behind Cairns.
After twenty-nine years at "Riverbend" - it may be a full thirty years by the time it's sold - I'll be definitely down-down-down-downsizing. No more carpentry or testing my plumbing skills, no more power tools or sitting for hours on a ride-on, and no more woodsplitting so as not to shiver through another cold winter. All I want is a room with a view (and room for my books) in a place that's either warm or hot but never cold.
Click here for a close-up map
For more information on Kuranda, go to www.kuranda.org
I had looked at 14 Barang Street which last month sold for $420,000, and then at a two-bedroom unit at 9/40 Coondoo Street which also sold last month for $207,000, which left a one-bedroom in the same Faraway Tree House, Unit 12, for sale at $187,000, but now also 'Under Offer'.
During my visit in 2003 I befriended the retired couple Pat & George Mcfarlane who lived in Unit 10 which they bought in 1992 for $96,000. The unit for sale at the time was the two-bedroom Unit 11 which then sold in 2004 for $93,000 (after having been bought twelve years earlier for $96,000; the real estate market in the tropical north is fickle; one big cyclone or one big Wet and everyone goes back to the Deep South!)
Plan of the Faraway Tree House, Level A = Shops; Level B = Home units For past sale prices, click here
Unit 1 sold Sep'09 $286,000; Dec'04 $115,000; Sep'02 $500,000
Unit 2 sold Oct'15 $100,000; Aug'05 $89,750
Unit 3 sold Jun'06 $71,000
Unit 4 sold Jun'06 $71,000
Unit 5 sold Jul'97 $200,000
Unit 6 sold Jul'97 $200,000
Unit 7 sold Jul'97 $200,000
Unit 8 sold Jan'05 $90,000
Unit 9 sold Feb'22 $207,000; Jan'17 $159,000; Aug'02 $90,000
Such small pied-à-terre is ideal, and I'll keep my eyes on the Faraway Tree House. Someone might head south in the next twelve months which is how long it will take to sell "Riverbend" once I've put my mind to it.
Ich wanderte im Jahre 1965 vom (k)alten Deutschland nach Australien aus. In Erinnerung an das alte Sprichwort "Gott hüte mich vor Sturm und Wind und Deutschen die im Ausland sind" wurde ich in 1971 im Dschungel von Neu-Guinea australischer Staatsbürger. Das kostete mich nur einen Umlaut und das zweite n im Nachnamen - von -mann auf -man.
Australien gab mir eine zweite Sprache und eine zweite Chance und es war auch der Anfang und das Ende: nach fünfzig Arbeiten in fünfzehn Ländern - "Die ganze Welt mein Arbeitsfeld" - lebe ich jetzt im Ruhestand in Australien an der schönen Südküste von Neusüdwales.
Ich verbringe meine Tage mit dem Lesen von Büchern, segle mein Boot den Fluss hinunter, beschäftige mich mit Holzarbeit, oder mache Pläne für eine neue Reise.
This blog is written in the version of English that is standard here. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc. I recognise that some North American readers may find this upsetting, and while I sympathise with them, I sympathise even more with my countrymen who taught me how to spell. However, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to put where needed.
Zzzzzz
Disclaimer
This blog has no particular axe to grind, apart from that of having no particular axe to grind. It is written by a bloke who was born in Germany at the end of the war (that is, for younger readers, the Second World War, the one the Americans think they won single-handedly). He left for Australia when most Germans had not yet visited any foreign countries, except to invade them. He lived and worked all over the world, and even managed a couple of visits back to the (c)old country whose inhabitants he found very efficient, especially when it came to totting up what he had consumed from the hotels' minibars. In retirement, he lives (again) in Australia, but is yet to grow up anywhere.
He reserves the right to revise his views at any time. He might even indulge in the freedom of contradicting himself. He has done so in the past and will most certainly do so in the future. He is not persuading you or anyone else to believe anything that is reported on or linked to from this site, but encourages you to use all available resources to form your own opinions about important things that affect all our lives and to express them in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Everything on this website, including any material that third parties may consider to be their copyright, has been used on the basis of “fair dealing” for the purposes of research and study, and criticism and review. Any party who feels that their copyright has been infringed should contact me with details of the copyright material and proof of their ownership and I will remove it.
And finally, don't bother trying to read between the lines. There are no lines - only snapshots, most out of focus.
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