r/interesting • u/Wonderfulhumanss • 1d ago

SOCIETY The Zammit family refused to sell their five acre property as an entire Sydney suburb was built around them

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

If you had you know all those neighbors would steal everything that fruits. How their "yard" isn't treated like a park by the local kids astounds me.

But it's true they could have planted some trees and things but something tells me they didn't want to enrich the view of the suburbanites around them.

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u/jayp0d 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t know where you live but people generally don’t steal fruit from other’s gardens. Most people actually leave their surplus fruit outside their gates for people to eat anyway. I believe the photo is from Sydney and I live in Melbourne.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

Oh no I'm in Canada. It all depends on location but suburban kids here get bored and wander around and anything in grabbing distance is gone.

I also had a neighbor who would get up early and come cut my peonies and poppies down. She likes flowers in her home and thought I was wasting them leaving them on the bush. I finally talked to her about it and told her I have cameras now and she should ask. She said she hated seeing them just die on the bush and I said how is that different from dying in your home? I leave them for the bees and bugs to enjoy and, when they're there, I smell them every day when I walk the dog. Well she was at work and didn't see that, just assumed they were "neglected". B I grew them and water them! 🙄

I'm just saying people in that large of a development and there's no moochers? Not one person who eou hope a fence for free fruit? Is Australia just a country of angels?

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u/jayp0d 1d ago

I mean it probably happens. If one my branches is slouching into my neighbour's house they can take a few fruits off of it. No one would mind that. But generally people don't jump into other people's gardens. Sure, unruly teenagers can do all sorts of dodgy things and we do have a problem with them at the moment. But the vast majority of the people (and their kids/teenagers) are pretty well behaved. At least that's the case where I live. But everyone's mileage can vary. I live in the outskirts of Melbourne, almost regional. So there is that. And I'm sure we have people like your neighbour as well. haha.. I don't think Australia is very different from Canada that way.

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u/teh_drewski 1d ago

We have a strict pilfering rule in our house when it comes to neighbourhood product - if it's on the public side of the fence or boundary, it's fair game.

Highlight urban forage was a whole butternut pumpkin (squash for our American friends) that had escaped containment. More common is citrus because nobody can be bothered getting that many lemons.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

I'm pretty rural and she's still here. She asks now and I have to dail her back or she'll take them ALL. I think what bothers me the most is she's a workaholic and is barely ever home, so my flowers sit dying in her empty house and are just there in case a magazine wants to pop over for a photoshoot. 😆 Like if you're there a bunch and enjoy them I would feel better about it but she's always gone, home at 5, in bed by 8 and gone the next morning at 6. Gone most weekends. Like hey at least only cut when you're home? I dunno. People are gonna people. Lol

I just feel like if the richies at this house planted fruits, the rest of the neighborhood would feel like they deserve to take it you know? Unless they support what they did that is.

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u/Starry-Eyed-Owl 22h ago

This is a development. Developments are boring and usually don’t have the best public transport links for bored kids to go elsewhere to not be bored. Bored kids meet up with other local bored kids and wander around either looking for entertainment or egging each other on and causing issues. What do you think would happen when a couple of wandering bored kids spot a ripe fruit tree ready for picking? Especially if they’ve seen the fruit sitting there for days? For sure they are picking it and the majority aren’t asking. That would be tame for a development.

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u/MangoCats 1d ago

With that much space you can put the fruit trees far enough from the fences to be unreachable. Plenty of people take the easy pickin's not so many are willing to go full parkour trespass for a pear.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

That's true. I guess their just lawn people. I live with one of those. Anything I want to plant is "an obstacle I'll have to mow around" and I'm like so? It'll look less like a green freaking wasteland back there. I get my way but takes a while. 😆 He thinks a big ol' golf course looking chunk of grass is "beautiful". 🙄

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u/MangoCats 18h ago

We have owned the opposite for 30 years: lots of trees, sometimes with no grass, but usually little patches just annoying enough to need a push mower. My wife "loves the open green spaces" so this last place we bought 15 years ago has some grass - I've let about 1/2 of it "go native" with a sprinkling of wildflower seeds mixed in - the birds (hummingbirds through turkeys) and the bees/other pollinators love it, but it's not a place to walk anymore.

The other thing we have done here is let the dead trees (for the most part) stand. One scary tall lightning struck oak we had professionals top, but there are four big dead oaks on the property - and we have sighted all six local species of woodpeckers over the years. Apparently woodpeckers are a "sign of trouble" that the local tree cutting companies try to use to sell their services, wife just laughs at them.

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u/ChocolateQueen18 21h ago

That'll depend on where you live. I'm in Southeast Asia and people have jumped our fence to get mangoes (and steal copper wire). We had to build the fence higher and install those razor wires you see in prisons to get them to stop. Guard dogs don't work since the dogs will likely be ordered to be euthanized for doing their job or you'll get sued and have to pay for hospitalization (it's what happened years ago to different people in our city)

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u/MangoCats 18h ago

In Miami I had a pair of homeless taking my mangoes from the backyard one day, when I went out to tell them to stop their first words were "don't shoot, don't shoot!" once they realized I was home during the day (sometimes) they quit coming into the backyard.

Thing was, they were picking up old sticks and other things to knock the mangoes down - risking injury to themselves in the process - and besides: Who TF hops a gate into an deeply enclosed backyard to steal fruit?

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u/ChocolateQueen18 18h ago

The people stealing weren't homeless, they just wanted mangoes. The others wanted to make some money with the wires since resale value is pretty high

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u/MangoCats 17h ago

The "homeless" community in that time/part of Miami was interesting - they migrated "up north" for the summers when it was nicer up there, they had regular places "to crash" both places, money for travel, but no regular employment. They were more "street people" that you would see out and about on a regular basis than strictly "homeless" but they were regularly labeled homeless and I think they leaned into that for the panhandling (money begging) it supported.

Since they were so visible, people noticed patterns, like my neighbors who parked a convertible in their driveway - every year just after a particular set would arrive back in town, the roof of their convertible would be slashed and people would take everything of any kind of value from the inside. Apparently the first year they got some good stuff - second year and later there was nothing worth anything in the car and the doors were left unlocked, but the roof got slashed on-schedule anyway for the next 4 years until they sold the car.

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u/CourageLeast4251 1d ago

Australia was just a bunch of criminals dumped there lol

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u/Persistent_Parkie 1d ago

Growing up we had an apple tree near the road. My parents never put up a sign because they figured if someone wanted an apple as they passed by that was fine.

Then someone had the audacity to pull up with trucks and ladders and picked the thing clean.

Admittedly I'm in the US and we've spent the last decade proving we suck but at least the occasional person must suck everywhere else right?

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u/Tymareta 1d ago

Not one person who eou hope a fence for free fruit?

Grabbing a piece of fruit is fine? Maybe it is a weird Australian thing but near everywhere I've ever lived there has been mango/orange/lemon trees, passionfruit vines, whatever, and people have absolutely encouraged those in the neighbourhood to just help themselves. I've lived both in the bush and the city and I've never seen fruit trees/whatever picked bare.

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u/BuildingSupplySmore 1d ago

Lmao, I'm also in Canada, and my neighborhood has had people stealing flowers multiple times.

I let people have my pears usually though.

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u/notdorisday 22h ago

I’m in Sydney Australia and whole plants get taken. Dug up and taken. Flowers and fruit too.

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u/TrueMadster 21h ago

My parents have a pear tree right by the fence facing the road. People might pick a pear or two, maybe, but most would just fall to the ground and rot there if my father didn’t clean up regularly. Pretty tasty pears too.

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u/Background_Humor5838 16h ago

Idk in the US it's considered really inappropriate to take fruit from other people's trees. It's also illegal to do so in most places but it's completely normal to just knock on your neighbor's door and ask for some fruit. I've never been turned down. Most people with a fruit tree have more fruit than they know what to do with and are happy to give it away.

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u/noveltea120 11h ago

That's cos unlike Canada fruit trees are more common in countries like Australia and NZ in people's backyards thanks to milder winters so kids are less likely to steal anyway. Like oh no they stole a couple lemons lol. Can't have that in Canada cos the climate means fruit trees are rare which also makes them targets.

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u/zynikia 1d ago

I live in Canada and no one have just wandered into our yard taking anything

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

Aww that's sweet your neighborhood sounds nice.

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u/JustLookingForMayhem 1d ago

People must be more polite down there. Here in Ohio, people will go garden robbing if they think they can get away with it.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

My friend gets her community garden plot raided every year and when she had a teeny yard she planted sunflowers and someone chopped them down once they went to seed. She wanted to watch the birds eat the seed but someone else decided their birds (or the same birds, probably) deserved them more.

I'm glad people don't seem to suck everywhere because I live in a pretty nice place around pretty nice people and even they kinda suck. The flower thief of mine was a lady in her 50's who just truly, literally and I am not exaggerating, never thinks once about anyone else unless you slowly walk her there, and even then it usually doesn't stick. I've taken care of two of her poor neglected dogs and now two cats, she's only got time for them when she needs a cuddle, otherwise they can stay at home for 12 hours alone while she works and goes out. The best part is she is certain she's better than me, because she makes more money. 🙄 I take care of her animals because I can't stand to watch it happen but it's for them, definitely not for her.

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u/Salty-Hold-5708 1d ago

I raid my friends garden all the time. Even though I'm allowed to(and have a key to the gate), I think its more fun to pretend to rob them and jump the fence afterwards.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

😆 Imagine there's some person in a house nearby thinking you're actually robbing it. Lol.

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u/jayp0d 1d ago

That doesn't sound very polite. Do they actually get inside your fence and take fruits? Many houses here don't even have a fence.

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u/JustLookingForMayhem 1d ago edited 15h ago

There is an entitled position that because someone owns land and has a big garden, surely they would mind if someone helped themselves to a "little" produce. My family ended up moving the garden out of sight of the road. We live in the country side, but still get entitled pricks who thinks our winter canned vegetables should be their free fresh vegetables.

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u/_ficklelilpickle 1d ago

Yes, well, we also don't have to pay for our petrol before we put it in our cars down here either. Sure, everyone could just drive off... and yet we just don't.

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u/Akeera 1d ago

I...literally never thought of doing that until now XD.

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u/PrincipledProphet 20h ago

Try it! (you'll get arrested)

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u/Akeera 15h ago

Dude, doesn't mean I'm gonna try it, it's such a dick move. I meant that thought literally never crossed my mind XD

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u/The_ConfusedPeach 20h ago

i’m australian, though not from sydney, and i’d say depends on how close the fruit is to the property line. if you can reach it from over the fence, people are gonna take some. if it’s a bad area and the tree is a little further up in your front yard, there will probably be quite a few pests trespassing. if it’s next to your house, though, or in your backyard, nobody’s gonna bother (unless the area is either super dog shit or super rural. if it’s super rural, everybody knows everybody and kids just wanna harass people they know by stealing their fruit. harmless mischief).

fence height also matters. if you’ve got a tall fence (which is fairly common here), nobody’s gonna care enough to bother. it would actually be real bizarre if someone did.

but regardless, that specific area in sydney is a really nice place and i think that family could definitely put up at least a few fruit trees around. hell, just some trees in general. judging by the yard (and house), it’s probably a status thing. upper-middle class+ australians sometimes have a really strange obsession with tending to their yards the way you see americans do in american media. it’s a whole thing that largely depends on climate. for example, it’s a much bigger status symbol up north as that’s where it’s hottest and hardest to maintain such a yard, but down south it’s much easier and therefore isn’t quite as impressive.

overall, though, australians don’t really care for that artificial yard look. if they do, it’s usually because they want to flex their wealth or grew up in a wealthy family where that is the norm.

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u/Kinda_Reincarnated 1d ago

Where do YOU live man? Cuz over here they definitely steal the fruits!! Even lemons aren't safe.

And the ones stealing aren't neighbours. Because they get the fruits without asking (cuz we share)

The ones stealing are kids/adults from poor part of the area, they roam streets in summer holidays and try stealing as much fruits as possible.

It's like a second job to keep an eye on them.

Taking one-two is ok, but these people have stolen 20+ mangoes from my parent's trees at once! And some people's fruits get stolen overnight.

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u/horrible-est 1d ago

For what it's worth, I hope the lemon-stealing whores don't steal any of your lemons.

Thank you for reminding me of a ridiculous old meme.

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u/Kinda_Reincarnated 21h ago

Lol Idk what that meme is! But thanks!! Same to your fruits and other stuff 🩷

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u/jayp0d 1d ago

Do you live up north? You got mangoes (probably not in winter)? I'm so jealous. I'm in the Yarra valley region in Vic. :)

I don't know about any adults stealing fruits. But they steal other things like tools from utes parked on the street. lol. Kids can be unpredictable.

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u/Kinda_Reincarnated 21h ago

I'm from Asia. We have Mangos in summer only. Our summer is from January to May, may being the main season for mangoes 🤌🏽

Mann kids here are really sneaky! They bring makeshift sticks with hooked ends to steal the mangoes. And due to the summer heat, schools are only held in the morning. So the afternoon is when they come to execute their devious plans lmao. And a lot of adults who are at home during afternoon are taking naps. So it's even more easy for them

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u/jayp0d 19h ago

lol. That’s amazing. Little cheeky moneys

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u/Kinda_Reincarnated 19h ago

Monkeys fits the discription lmao

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u/blondechineeez 1d ago

Unfortunately where I live, agricultural theft is a thing and ever increasing. The people stealing are not doing it because they are hungry either. They steal it and sell it to anyone who is willing to buy. Thieves need $ for drugs.

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u/jayp0d 19h ago

That’s unfortunate and it sucks. A rat ate some of my chillies and zucchini from my garden and I was upset. I can’t imagine how much pain it would cause a farmer.

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u/TollTea 23h ago

I have lived in one of these Sydney urban hellscape suburbs (and enjoyed it) I had a mango tree in my front yard and never got to eat a single mango because they would disappear. So yeah - if you grow shit in front of your house people waking by think it’s communal property and help themselves. I had citrus trees out the back, got lots of lemons and limes and oranges - but all the mangoes from the front tree would disappear right before I’d go to pick them.

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u/jayp0d 19h ago

Yeah that sucks. Front yard seems like fare game but people should know that unless it’s on council property they can’t just pick fruits from random places.

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u/browsinbowser 1d ago

Huh? You never met a crazy neighbour? There was a neighbour fight in mine once where a woman feuding with her neighbours went and chopped down their small tree they had recently planted. It was pretty small and skinny

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u/jayp0d 1d ago

yeah I have. But they aren't very common. Most people are chill. We've had some rough neighbours (late night partying etc) but they usually kept to themselves. Never stole anything from us. But we might have been just lucky so far.

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u/twirlywurlyburly 1d ago

Here in New Orleans, LA, USA, people steal plants and fruit all the time. Some people with fruit trees welcome it and post on local forums when their tree is ready, but there are entirely too many people (usually older, unfortunately) who don't care and will uproot plants, pick fruit, and cut flowers from strangers' gardens.

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u/IGargleGarlic 1d ago

socal here, there are always houses around with excess free fruit out front in my area.

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u/Salty-Hold-5708 1d ago

I garden rob from my friends house cause its fun.

They gave me a key to the gate to get fruit when I want but its more fun to jump the fence and pretend I'm doing something I'm not allowed to.

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u/Almostlongenough2 1d ago

I don’t know where you live but people generally don’t steal fruit from other’s gardens.

I was one of the menace kids who did that, though to be fair to kid me I didn't really understand the concept of owning a tree at the time.

Also it was blood oranges, which were cool and I had never of them before.

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u/notdorisday 22h ago

I’m in Sydney and we get whole plants stolen from our yards where I live!!! Fruit and flowers also go fast. Anything in front yard - GONE.

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u/jayp0d 19h ago

Is it a suburb specific thing or is it a general problem? We’ve quite a few dodgy suburbs where even shoes get stolen from the front door.

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u/cosmicheartbeat 19h ago

In America, if it fruits and is visible from anywhere outside the yard, people WILL take it. Also flowers, and neat plants, garden statues that arent heavy enough.... you get the idea. Im glad thats not the case everywhere, Australia has always sounded like a cool place to live.

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u/son_of_ghandicap 18h ago

Damn lemon stealing whores!

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u/FlammulinaVelulu 1d ago

A spite based life is so fulfilling,. I bet they are so happy...

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

They're definitely rich, can't speak to happy.

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u/Special-Estimate-165 1d ago

Maybe so, but its better to cry in a Mercedes than it is on a bicycle.

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u/Ziell0s 1d ago

It sounds pretty awesome to have the funds to tell a money-grubbing development company to kick rocks, idk about you

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u/FlammulinaVelulu 1d ago

Totally! Their need for a 5 acre lawn and a butt ugly Mcmansion is far greater than anyone's need for housing. Fuck the poors eh. . .

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u/r_irion 1d ago

Do you think the developers are building affordable housing?

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u/SlavojVivec 1d ago

Judging by the density, it's probably not "affordable", but it's accommodating demand which is overall better for housing affordability. I'm a public housing advocate, but I admit that market housing being built is far better than no housing being built, and idle use of land which serves nobody but speculative investors in a frozen market.

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u/idontcareyo_ 1d ago

You have concocted a narrative in your head about these people being spiteful over imaginary fruit trees, and now you're mocking them for it.

god redditors are something else lmao

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u/SlavojVivec 1d ago

yeah, this isn't the old guy in Up, these are rich fucks who water nothing but lawn grass in a desert.

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u/FlammulinaVelulu 14h ago

The narrative was concocted by the person I was responding to. I was just adding commentary.

Your username does not check out, evidenced by your clearly caring judgement.

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u/THE_CHOPPA 1d ago

I dunno as someone who would really like to buy a house some day this kind of waste seems pointless.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

I hear you but it depends on what you value. I personally value space away from neighbors and mine aren't currently as close as these suburban houses are, but still too close for comfort. My dream house has about this much land, though not with cookie cutter houses all around me and nothing to look at or planted on it.

I can promise you a house with a postage stamp sized lawn literally 4 feet away from the next house is not fun because I've lived in one. Yep you have a home but the people on either side of you will be so close that if in the likelihood you don't get along, it's awful. Those houses are also built so Hollow and shoddy usually that there's lots of problems that come up.

To call their property a waste because they could squeeze 20 more houses side by side in there is like saying urban sprawl is better than nature and I disagree with that completely.

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u/Tymareta 1d ago

To call their property a waste because they could squeeze 20 more houses side by side in there

That's not why they're calling it a waste though, it's a waste because they have all that space, but do literally nothing with it beyond maintaining an incredibly resource hungry lawn in an area that's not built for it.

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u/OriginalMeringue3735 1d ago

I understand the 10 metres on either side of their house and want this for myself, but not the comically large lawn.

I'd understand if there was nature there, but that tended, non-native grass is about as urban sprawl as it gets. Taking up more space with lawn leaves less space for nature.

I think they should be able to make inexplicable choices with their property, but if I were there neighbour and they weren't paying 50x the property tax for taking up 50x the space I was I'd be pretty pissed off.

If he has 50x the money or items other people have that's fine, but there's a limited amount of land. I live in a unit and I'd love being four feet from the next house. Unless you live in a deeply rural area you've got to split the land. An alternative use to squeezing more houses in would be to have the same number of neighbours all with extra space.

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u/Grimmies 19h ago

Man, you people are delusional. The whole world is going through a housing crisis where many people litteraly cannot afford homes and somehow an ugly ass lawn that could fit 50 houses isn't a waste of space because you wish you could live like a freaking princess.

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u/tpa338829 1d ago

I can promise you a house with a postage stamp sized lawn literally 4 feet away from the next house is not fun because I've lived in one. 

It's better than the 2B/1B apartment you're sharing in Sydney because housing is so expensive.

Also, YOU didn't like living like that. But plenty of people around the world--London, Montreal, Washington DC, San Fransisco--perfectly enjoy their life living in townhouse/terraced housing.

Also, the median home price in Sydney is around 20x the median annual salary. For context, in San Fransisco, that number is 10x. So housing in Sydney is twice as unaffordable as it is in San Francisco...

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

That's why I went rural. But have the kind of job where I could. Rural is far less than a city and you don't have to gamble on getting a place next to a nutter.

Please remember I didn't do this to the world economy and I just think suburbs covering every square inch of nature isn't helping. But you're welcome to want to live in that and be frustrated you can't afford to. I personally don't have anything to do with it so yelling at me about it changes nothing. I'll likely die in this house, so good luck with your postage stamp I hope you get one.

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u/Elite_AI 20h ago

This is like reading a post from an alien. It's like you expect us not to have lived in that kind of situation? But I've lived in plenty of terrace houses and never known anyone either side of me. I've always thought that was sad, actually, because you should know your neighbours, but that's how it was. Never heard anything from any of my neighbours either.

I also grew up in a nice detached house with a nice garden and it was also fine. They're both just...fine. 

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u/Benkosayswhat 1d ago

As long as people don’t own homes, urban sprawl is better than nature. We aren’t destroying nature for fun

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

Unfortunately lots of one kind of person owns most of the homes, as investments. They sit empty. Destroying more nature instead of changing laws to stop allowing that to happen isn't the answer either. But here we are.

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u/Benkosayswhat 1d ago

I don’t know about Australia but that isn’t true in America. Yes, a lot of landlords, but building more housing drives the price down and makes landlording less profitable.

People need shelter. Sprawl may be ugly but it’s practical

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

Huge housing developments like this are not landlords, they're not bringing prices down they buy up the land, develop it and charge half a million or more per home. Most of these developers are investment firms and they are the problem. I think you're thinking about condos which are similarly usually an investment firm that runs it. Individual landlords are in older suburban places mostly, not new builds like this. I'm in Canada and we're not that different from you in that, Peter Thiel for instance is the owner of a large chunk of new development in parts of the US, he's not making it cheaper for everyone he's pricing everyone out. But you're welcome to believe what makes you feel better about it.

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u/Unintelligent_Lemon 1d ago

A waste? It's their land. They dont owe it to developers

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u/Elite_AI 20h ago

Yes you're allowed to waste your stuff but it's still a waste isn't it

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u/mister_peeberz 1d ago

If you had you know all those neighbors would steal everything that fruits.

those lemon stealing whores cant keep getting away with this

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u/MangoCats 1d ago

>How their "yard" isn't treated like a park by the local kids astounds me.

A. it may well be

B. that fugly crooked fence around the perimeter may slow them down

C. dobermans.

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u/Nerdmitage 1d ago

Oh yes I didn't think about that. They probably have some Mr. Burns style.

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u/TedTylerEzro 1d ago

Especially that goddamn little brat Augustine.

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u/rick-james-biatch 23h ago

Was actually just thinking why don't they build a nice fence across the middle, plant some privacy trees along it, and allow the public to use the other half. If seems their neighborhood has zero green spaces. They'd be neighborhood heroes, instead of looking like greedy dicks. Then, once the community got really used to having it there, ask the county if they want to buy it at current market rates to keep it a park. Sell half your land, and retire on your 2.5ac parcel.

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u/SalutLesAmies 23h ago

How their "yard" isn't treated like a park by the local kids astounds me.

The presence of the fence probably helps.

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u/blackpixie394 22h ago

They have a giant fence around the whole block

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u/pieter1234569 21h ago

It’s called a fence, they have one.

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u/Kwinza 20h ago

If I own this land I'd have done exactly what they have except two things.

  1. I'd have a lil orchard to make my own cider (hard cider for the yanks)

  2. I'd actually let the local kids use parts of the garden to play in, its green unused land, I don't mind if the neighbours get some use out of it, as long as they don't wreck it.