Land that time forgot: Mitcham Council chasing unpaid rates from 150 years ago

It’s an idyllic lot in the heart of the City of Mitcham but its owner hasn’t paid rates for more than 150 years — but that isn’t going to stop the council from chasing up the hefty sum.

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More than 100 people in the Mitcham Council area are in arrears with their rate payments — with one Adelaide foothills lot owner spectacularly in debt.

This recalcitrant ratepayer has not paid up for more than 150 years.

Now Mitcham wants its money.

The council is owed a total of more than $1.5 million in unpaid rates.

Lot 94 Mount Barker Road, Leawood Gardens.

Of that sizeable sum, $30,000 is owed on Lot 94 Mt Barker Rd, Leawood Gardens.

The owner skipped the country back in 1865, but Mitcham is still taking legal steps to recover what could well be the oldest debt owed to any council in the nation.

The vacant lot, around 5000 sqm, is South Australia’s version of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs’s The Land That Time Forgot.

As for the debt, that was only discovered by the Office of the Valuer-General around 1998 — and the information provided to Mitcham for action.

Before that, the property had not appeared on Mitcham’s rateable assessment book and wasn’t even known to exist.

When bought in the mid-1800s, it would have offered a quiet rural idyll almost a day’s journey from Adelaide.

Mitcham Council mayor, Dr Heather Holmes-Ross on the vacant lot. Picture: Alex Aleshin

Today, the vacant lot in an area most commonly known as Eagle On The Hill is situated just 50m from the South Eastern Freeway, across from the All Pets Boarding Village and just south of the Heysen Tunnels.

But who was the owner and who owns it now?

Well, that is the issue.

The land title states that the owner was George Fredrick Aston, who died in England in either 1874 or 1875.

But an investigation by debt collectors a few years ago couldn’t trace any descendants of Mr Aston in the UK or Australia.

A council spokeswoman said Mitcham was still intent on discovering how the vacant lot could be disposed of and where the money would go.

“Council is working through the process of whether this land is to be sold or returned to the Crown,” she said.

“The intent is to sell the property to reclaim the debt and any extra money will follow the unclaimed moneys legislation process.

“A report will be prepared for council in the next financial year to advise them of the situation and ask for approval to proceed with the sale for non-payment of rates.”

Unlike other councils — including Tea Tree Gully, Playford, Salisbury and Adelaide — Mitcham has not previously sold any properties to recover unpaid rates.

Estimates based on other sales of land in the area would see Lot 94 worth as much as $200,000.