Rocklea, on the city’s south side, had the most buybacks of any Brisbane suburb, with 72 properties spanning more than 50,000 square metres acquired.
Can confirm - houses around here have been disappearing like a Thanos finger click.
I actually feel a little bit sorry for some people… In the period after the flood but before the buyback was completed, there were properties hitting the market and being sold at insane prices for what was essentially floodplain. All of a few months after people were moving in to their new home, the properties either side are getting demolished and turned in to green space.
Imagine buying a house and committing to a 30 year mortgage, only for both your immediate neighbours properties to be considered useless for housing and turning into tiny parks. On the one hand - hooray! No neighbours! But on the other hand… You’re kinda isolated and perched in the middle of public space on a property that council considered so bad for housing (in a housing crisis!) that it’s better off as a lawn.
All of this land is perfect for rewilding, I hope it doesn’t just stay as gigantic, featureless lawnscape.
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I have bad news for you… at least in Rocklea.
Its just suburban blocks full of mown grass. A block of grass here, a few houses, another block of grass, a few houses, two blocks of grass, a house, another block…
I reckon they’d be perfect for some community gardens and what not, but there’s one giant thing that’ll stop it - “liability”.
With community (specifically fruit & veg) gardens you need to be considerate of what pollutants could be in the soil, especially if the area is prone to flooding. Regrowing native bushland has no such concerns and has the added benefit of providing much needed habitat for native species AND the flood resilience that lawns actually counteract.
Yeah… You wouldn’t want to be getting stuck in to produce from that soil - between oil spills from every wrecker that’s been allowed to set up shop at the lowest possible pieces of land right next to the creek, the asbestos from 1940s and 50s construction that’s been ploughed in over years of demolition, the assorted heavy metals from the metal recyclers, and the literal poo from the waste water treatment it would be a braver (or stupider) person than I who would be willing to consume any harvest.