So there he was, standing up there, so tall and particular with his nose in the air...

When mining first began in the Brisbane area, one of the areas that produced coal, was Collingwood Park, where Wayne and Bernadette's house is, and where we've bought our little rental house.
The manner in which Australian authorities sanction development is similar to the manner in which the authorities in frontier America did before they realised that they'd pissed away a paradise.

So it was a bit of a worry when last week, a street nearby was closed because of subsidence. We wondered what was going on, I thought it must be a film set or something...but it was because several houses in the street had suffered significant cracking overnight.



It turns out that these houses, and hundreds of others in the area have been built on disused mines! Oh 'she'll be right' mate... I can imagine it! The map shows the mines in grey, and i've ringed our house, and Bernadette and Wayne's. OK we're outside the 'alleged' area of the mining, but we're still in Collingwood Park, and its been on national telly for the week. Good for house values? I don't think so.



So what do you reckon? I mean how come nobody mentioned it! Not the solicitor, not the surveyor, no one local that owns a house here... When it came onto the telly that night, everyone seemed to be unsurprised! Turns out there was a collapse a few years ago! Ipswich deputy mayor Victor Attwood said the area of concern had a history of subsidence owing to a fault line running through the suburb and underground mining years ago. "This is the likely cause of the ground movement" he said. Smart bloke this deputy mayor eh! But then the mayor said " I suspect it's an old mine shaft that's collapsed"....not to be outdone. Guess what the mayor is called?

Paul Pissale! Yeah that'll be right. (Where do they find 'em?)

The local shopping centre, finished in 1985 at a cost of $20m was actually $14m plus $6m for filling in the mine shafts under it! I dunno, call me old fashioned, i'd have thought that there must have been other places that would have been better to build on. Perhaps it was cheap...? Well it MUST have been cheap eh!



Opposite the shopping centre is a large area of bushland. I'd estimate that it's in excess of 80 acres.



A couple of months ago, driving past it as I do on the way home, I noticed a truck with a large tower on the bed. It looked like a drilling rig. A few days after that, the diggers moved in, and they flattened 4 or 5 acres.



Last month I noticed it in a different location, but so far there's been nothing cleared down there. Then today I saw it again. Its like the grim reaper for wild areas.



....and nobody gives a toss.

Then tonight I realised this is looking for mine shafts! If it doesn't find any, they flatten...and sell on. I assume that nothing happened with with the second one I saw because there's a hole under it. But hey... money talks. Bugger me, they never learn do they! What do you think they'll do with the land over the mine? Er... maybe I should ask, what do you think the chances are that they'll do the 'right thing'?