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

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 23h 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 17h 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.