please PLEASE will you support this family to petition their local SHIRE

People Power Needed!🙏🙏🙏 Please help this family to restore their home and land. What they have been left with is not only an eyesore which has devalued their property and caused intolerable stress, but is an ongoing danger to their children and livestock.

In 2015 my niece Hannah and partner Rick bought a tiny little cottage in Donnybrook. Although the property was small, they had plenty of space outdoors to enjoy their animals and live life in a much simpler way. They planned to settle there permanently and raise their children. They knew that the property was wet in parts but had enough room for their immediate needs and planned to carry out some work at a later time. However when their third little boy was born in June that same year, my niece returned from the hospital, to see heavy machinery carrying out works in the middle of winter without any authorisation whatsoever to access the family's land. It was supposedly routine maintenance to a stormwater drain outside of their boundary and The Shire have since claimed the entry was for emergency purposes, This is the ONLY house on the street and the family were home prior to works beginning but were not notified. The drain is not on the property title and to their knowledge the family did not purchase the property with any easement or drain on it. However The Shire steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that it runs through a private property, dividing it entirely, and conveniently connects to the Dam that services the local oval.

Three heavy duty machines became stuck that day, turning long-established grassland into a mud pit. One machine nearly sunk entirely after three days thrashing to get out. Logs and pallets were brought in by the truckload as Shire staff and workers watched the rescue efforts. Until he returned to working away, Rick himself was out there with them, helping and taking coffee until eventually the last machine was freed. Then everybody disappeared!!

Hannah, newly out of hospital was left alone - with a newborn, a toddler and her eldest then only 5 years old - in the middle of a dangerous wasteland of water, clay-soil and debris. Many years of established lawn had gone she had no idea that she would be forced to spend the next three+ year's, fighting to get their property restored to what it once was; a beautiful , peaceful, SAFE haven for their growing family.

They asked for a safety fence... they were given a six-star picket and a piece of orange plastic that blew down in a month. Every concern raised, was quickly shut down.
During failed remediation attempts they were verbally abused by workers for asking why they were just dumping sand on top of the exposed logs and debris that had been abandoned. They then had to remove the rotting wood that was creating danger spots and sinkholes, as witnessed by the current CEO, Councillors and other Shire staff. Staff who still flatly refused to answer their questions.

Ricky and Hannah's small children have become stuck in holes left by the machines. Two of their animals have died through infections from being exposed to stagnant pools of water and they have been intimidated, bullied and burnt out by a system that has failed to help and protect them in any way. They have even had paint hurled at their property as The Shire, meanwhile, continue to circulate false propaganda that "a resolution has been reached in the family's favour". IT HAS NOT!

As they head into their fourth Winter much of the damage and danger still remains. I am thus reaching out to share their story. I very much hope that public pressure will be brought to bear against the local Shire - who - irrespective of the purported reasons for it - will accept due liability for the damage to their land and do right by this young family in rectifying it.


As a parent and homeowner myself I am horrified to think that ANY local authority of integrity would, through their inaction, show such blatant disregard for property and life .

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