The Random thought thread

[nomadpete]

45 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

When the ' evidence ' is one sided , in that. The world,  millennium ago was hotter than it now is . And fauna & flora, were larger than today's species. 

All the coal in the ground ,was growing at a phenomenal 

Rate above the ground ,

spacesailor

And there were no cities full of humans around due to numerous natural events and extremes. In my lifetime, I am seeing the global environment (and chimate) changing faster than humans and a host of other species can adapt.

I cannot ignore the massive changes brought about by humanity. ALL forms of pollution have resulted in a catastrophic sudden change. Not only CO2. Plastics and Glyphosphate are only two pollutants that are affecting pretty much all creatures.

I will be long dead before the game plays out but I think we should be doing everything possible to wind back our bad policies.

 

[facthunter]

We can't keep on $#!tting in our own nest. Nev

[willedoo]

I got a bit of a shock recently when I found out what prime grain properties are selling for on the Darling Downs in Queensland. A lot of them are averaging around $6,500 per acre or more and that's bare price not including any current crops. For a six and a half million dollar investment, you get a 1,000 property that you can only scratch a living on (if it rains).

 

A mate of mine has a property in the district that has 700 acres of cultivation plus some rougher creek country. Over the years, both he and his wife have had to work off farm to support themselves. It's not unusual to go a couple of years without a crop due to drought, so the farm income is a bonus when the season is right. It's hard to relate that to a property sale value of six million.

[onetrack]

Property prices overall are right out of kilter against all other measurable and historical standards. I fear we will eventually have a property crash, but I have no idea when that might be.

A former farmer client in the W.A. Wheatbelt, about 300kms SE of Perth, just sold the family farm that his father started in the 1930's. His Dad and Mum are long dead and the son must be in his late 70's.

It's good wheat, canola, coarse grains and sheep country with a reliable 14" (355mm) annual rainfall and only a few droughts in the last 120 years since the area was developed.

Around 20 years ago, I would've estimated the 7000 acres in his farm was worth around $2M. He just put it on the market for $21.2M (no offers), and it sold within a month, for his asking price.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Peroperty prices here generally fell last year, which wasn't great news to me as we are fixing this place up to sell (it is too big and too bloody expensive to keep running). However, this year, they have up-ticked a bit, so it is looking better.

 

In terms of  farming propery, when I moved down here, decent arable or grazing land was fetching about £6K/acre without a dwelling on it; slightly higher with a dwelling (getting planning permission to build on a farming property without a dwelling on it is difficult, and it usually comes with a condition, the proeprty must remain being used as an agricultural enterprise).

 

These days, land sells for about £13k - £15k / acre, but it depends on quality. Just look at this; askign $15K for .67 of an acre without planning permission. Absolutely nuts: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/14221249/

 

Just noticed, if you look at the map; to the right of it is a place called Kings Hall - was the primary/junior school (went to year 😎 the kids went to.

 

Edited March 8 by Jerry_Atrick

[willedoo]

I think if my mate sold his farm it would sell to a bigger farmer who was aggregating properties. At the current prices, it would be hard to justify forking out that sort of money to run it as a live-on, single income property. All the old soldier settlement farms in the area are too small to make a living these days. Most farmers still in the game are now farming a combination of old smaller properties. When I was a kid growing up, there were a lot of 640 acre soldier settlement farms that supported a family.

[Marty_d]

23 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Peroperty prices here generally fell last year, which wasn't great news to me as we are fixing this place up to sell (it is too big and too bloody expensive to keep running). However, this year, they have up-ticked a bit, so it is looking better.

 

In terms of  farming propery, when I moved down here, decent arable or grazing land was fetching about £6K/acre without a dwelling on it; slightly higher with a dwelling (getting planning permission to build on a farming property without a dwelling on it is difficult, and it usually comes with a condition, the proeprty must remain being used as an agricultural enterprise).

 

These days, land sells for about £13k - £15k / acre, but it depends on quality. Just look at this; askign $15K for .67 of an acre without planning permission. Absolutely nuts: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/14221249/

 

Just noticed, if you look at the map; to the right of it is a place called Kings Hall - was the primary/junior school (went to year 😎 the kids went to.

 

If you had enough contacts in the council, 15k for a block would be an absolute steal.

[Jerry_Atrick]

True.. It's a bit like airfields here, which are disappearing at an alarming rate (Popham, which is the unofficial mecca of LAA (equivalent of RAAus) covered aircraft us under threat. As an airfield, it is worth, I dunno, a couple of million £. But, with planning permission to put a new estate on it, its value rises to about 20 fold (c. £40m). Council that previously opposed redevelopment suddenly are supportive of it.. the club there are scouring the verges of the roads for discarded brown paper bags...

 

Developers here land bank airfields because John "two-Jags" Prescott, despite promising to rezone airfields as greenfield in a planning law revam about 20 years ago, left them in as brownfield (these are colloquial rather than their legal terms). Brownfield sites are easy to get planning permission for once due process has been performed. Look up Plymouth airfield. It was purchased by a developer under the promise of developing the airfield for aviation uses, subject to an armadeggon clause. After allowing the facilities to fall into almost disrepair, they triggered the armageddon clause and shut the airfield down. At least the council and a well funded lobby group (of which I have tipped in a bit) are fighting back. Thsi will go to a central planning tribunal, who, as long as the develope have complied with the conditions of the armageddon clause,  will probably hold as brownfield, they can develop on it. That will hand them a tidy profit even after 15 years or thereabouts as a land bank.

[willedoo]

 Facebook market place. There's some absolute bargains, some fair prices, and then there's sellers who belong in crazy town. The dude selling this old corrugated iron is asking $50 per sheet. Someone should tell him he's dreaming.

 

[Marty_d]

$50 a sheet for that rubbish?  Does he think old iron has heritage value or something?

[willedoo]

3 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

$50 a sheet for that rubbish?  Does he think old iron has heritage value or something?

He thinks it's a big deal because it's from a 100 year old building. It's not as if old rusty roofing iron is hard to come by. People dump it all the time.

[Marty_d]

23 minutes ago, willedoo said:

He thinks it's a big deal because it's from a 100 year old building. It's not as if old rusty roofing iron is hard to come by. People dump it all the time.

I've never heard of anyone saying "In order to keep the building's heritage intact, let's buy some 100 year old rusty iron for the roof".

In fact, if the inhabitants had a choice 100 years ago, I reckon they'd go the new Colorbond too.

[onetrack]

I dunno - have you seen the price of NEW colorbond sheeting?? And it's about as thick as tissue paper, too! That old CGI, you can rest each end on concrete blocks, and stand on the unsupported middle section, and it won't even bend!! You could slap a coat of Metalfix on that rusted section, and the old sheeting would still outlast the new stuff!

 

New colorbond is only good for 20 years today,and they won't even guarantee it if you live near the coast!!

[Marty_d]

9 hours ago, onetrack said:

I dunno - have you seen the price of NEW colorbond sheeting?? And it's about as thick as tissue paper, too! That old CGI, you can rest each end on concrete blocks, and stand on the unsupported middle section, and it won't even bend!! You could slap a coat of Metalfix on that rusted section, and the old sheeting would still outlast the new stuff!

 

New colorbond is only good for 20 years today,and they won't even guarantee it if you live near the coast!!

Maybe it's a bit thinner - but once it's fixed on the roof it only has to deal with rain and hail, neither of which is going to hurt it,  and more to the point it's as long as you want, straight, already painted, and not full of nail and rust holes! 😆

 

Last time I priced it - admittedly a couple of years back - it was around $20/m I think.

[facthunter]

There's imitation  sheet which is thinner. For right near the Beach they can supply stainless. I'll find out the current new price for the real stuff. .  Nev

[onetrack]

It's getting pretty bad when the paint coating thickness is nearly on a par with the metal thickness! Now they even give you coated and uncoated thickness specifications!

[facthunter]

Are they the Bluescope ones?.   Nev

[onetrack]

Yes, Bluescope were the crowd that produced unpainted and painted thickness specs as they were pissed off at imports undercutting them with thinner metal and thicker paint.

[red750]

I did not know this,

 

 

 

[old man emu]

He's nae a Scot!  He's wearing underpants.

[Marty_d]

Seems a bit complicated. He ever consider jeans and a jacket?

[nomadpete]

10 hours ago, red750 said:

I did not know this,

 

 

 

I didn't know that either. But it makes sense, logically. Not so sure how he'd  do all that on a muddy battlefield.

 

I rather like his fireplace though.

[nomadpete]

Marty, jeans and a jacket would get you frozen to death on a cold Scottish winter night.

[facthunter]

Re the thickness of steel for the Colourbond its .48 MM, near enough to .019". I promised I'd check on it.   Nev

[onetrack]

And you can also order it in 0.42mm thickness. Some imported cladding is only 0.3mm thickness. I've never actually measured the old late 1800's Lysaght Custom Orb CGI, but I'll wager it was at least 1.5mm thick.