Dulwich Hill: Barnsbury Grove hoarding home in council’s sights

What started as a messy front yard has escalated in recent months to become one of Sydney’s worst hoarder houses. And whatever you do, don’t walk past after it’s been raining...

It’s the house of horrors kicking up a stink and driving neighbours mad in Sydney’s inner west.

But despite rubbish piling up into the yard beyond its windows and overflowing into the home next door the local council is yet to take any legal action.

The Dulwich Hill “dump” on Barnsbury Grove is earning the ire of locals who say the assortment of trash and rubbish has got out of control in recent years.

Images from Google Maps show a steady increase in the pile up from 2018, but in the last few months neighbours say the dumping has gone too far.

The Dulwich Hill home, potentially worth millions, is now a dumping ground.

One nearby neighbour said it was “horrendous”.

Beyond the “horrific” smell they fear there are serious health and fire risks if the trash is not removed.

Carlo Gentili’s 98-year-old aunt lived next door to the hoarder before she moved into an aged care home a few months ago and said the property was “horrendous”.

“This summer if something is not done, I really do fear what will happen,” he said.

“Then there’s the odour, when it rains it soaks the rubbish and the whole street stinks.

2018 … Picture: Google Maps

2019 … Picture: Google Maps

And 2020. Pictures: Google Maps

“I didn’t want (my aunt’s) last few years living there and dealing with that. It’s pretty upsetting for her.

“She’s had a traumatic life which makes this difficult for the rest of us because we didn’t want her spending time in her beautiful backyard with this next door.”

The property is registered to a woman who has since moved into a home and the council has been told her adult son is behind the dumping at the property.

It is believed the home has been vacant for some time.

Mr Gentili’s aunt had been living next door for the past 50 years and said he’s never seen anything like the rubbish that has emerged in the past five years.

The smell, according to one resident, kicks up when it rains.

The council has been looking into who is behind the dumping since May.

He said he peered over the back fence this week and was horrified at the state it was in.

“My first reaction when I saw it this week was ‘this is horrendous’. I was speechless and gob smacked,” he said.

“It looked like a dump or a rubbish tip, there’s a walkway built around the rubbish but even that’s collapsed.

“It’s always been a problem in this property and I can’t remember when I first witnessed it but it has been pretty bad in the last five years.”

Inner West Council is currently preparing a brief of evidence for its legal team and building regulation manager but if it does chose to take the owner to court for a clean-up it faces a potential nightmare.

The front yard is overflowing.

There is so much rubbish being hoarded it barely stays in the caged yard.

Across the city at Bondi, Waverley Council had been locked in a years-long battle to get the notorious Bobolas hoarder family to clean up their infamously trashed home.

That saga has played out in the courts, saw the home put up for auction multiple times and resulted in 15 clean up attempts by workers in the past 20 years after threats of charging them more than $150,000 for the mess.

“Hoarding is primarily a mental health issue, and is exacerbated by legal action and continues to recur. Council usually takes the option of communicating rather than litigating,” an Inner West Council spokeswoman said.

“Forced clean ups cost a great deal of money and resources. Legal enforcement rarely provides a solution to the hoarding problem. This has been the experience of other councils in NSW.

“There is no ‘quick fix’ with hoarding. Any solution to this problem must first and foremost address the underlying mental health issues of those involved.”

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