15 August

This is a rental house. In legal terms, a lease. Disgusting what the tenants have done, most would agree I'm sure. They'll lose their bond and could be charged. But here's a twist on leases, at a time the 'supply' of land is debated. Over 44% of the entire Australian continent is leased, to pastoralists. Meaning they don't own the land - we do. It's Crown Land. It's not freehold, like your house block. Many of these pastoralists are super-rich, and there are virtually no requirements on them to look after the land they lease at all. They clear vast areas of it by chains strung between bulldozers, and then move on. It's like soil mining, an extractive industry. Pastoralists are historically one of the most powerful political groups in Australia. Which is why they get away with it. Nobody questions it.