I feel a bit guilty about my first Canberra house
that I had a builder erect on land leased to
me for 99 years via a Commonwealth
land auction restricted to first-time
home buyers in 1974.
The land cost me $4,500.
The house cost $19,500.
The total cost: $24,000.
Establishing a garden in Canberra's
rock-hard clay soils was not easy.
But the results were worth it.
Back in 1974, Canberra had land auctions
restricted to first-time home buyers and
unrestricted land auctions for cashed-up
builders and second or third timers.
Developers never got a look-in.
All the subdivison, infrastructure and
block production activity was
done by contractors working
for the Commonwealth.
Wind the flim forward and all Howard's
first home buyers scheme does is to
increase the supply of cash chasing
the same number of blocks.
Result: House price inflation!
Here's a picture of my first-ever Petunia
growing in my first-ever house:.
Two died, one survived.
As I got better at Petunia husbandry,
I met Maureen, two kids arrived and
we moved to our current house
where the soil was even harder
but we had more of it:
But after much sweat and toil,
a garden emerged that had
lots and lots of Petunias:
Our garden is now well established
thanks to our tank water and grey
water irrigation system:
Maureen and I went shopping
today. Guess what we bought:
