Parkwood couple Noel and Sherrell Faulkner to lose dream home due to blasting for tram works
LIKE the Kerrigan’s in comedy The Castle, Noel Faulkner and his wife Sherrell are about to lose their much loved home due to infrastructure expansion.
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IT’S the vibe of the thing that gets the Faulkners of Parkwood angry and upset.
Like the Kerrigans in the Aussie classic The Castle, Noel Faulkner and his wife Sherrell are about to lose their much-loved home due to the second stage of the light rail crossing their property boundary.
Mrs Faulkner, unable to hold back tears yesterday, told the Bulletin: “It’s impacted on me a lot. It’s made me sick. I’m crying all the time. They’ve taken away everything we’ve worked hard for all our life. It’s not fair.
“This is my dream home. We’ve worked hard all our lives to get it.
“Then the Government has the right to say ‘You can go — it’s our home now’.
“I don’t know where we are living. Our life is in limbo.
“We are nearly 60 years old. Are we going to move into our old motorhome?”
The Faulkners said the State Government had offered the family $840,000 for the home and $50,000 for dislocation costs for a property that cost them $880,000 in 2007.
Independent valuers say the acreage block and home is worth $960,000.
If talks fail, the Government wants the couple out by April 15.
Mr Faulkner was a train driver and worked in the boiler rooms at the Port Kembla steelworks when, during a visit to the Coast in 2004, the family found and bought the block with ocean views.
After years of savings, they built the home in 2007, with Mr Faulkner’s entire wage used to pay the mortgage as they lived off the money from Mrs Faulkner’s job as a cleaner.
Mrs Faulkner has been on medication for depression and anxiety after learning from the media that her retirement home would not be safe, due to blasting works on the planned Parklands to Helensvale line.
Mr Faulkner said: “We don’t want to stand in the way of progress but we don’t want to leave this area either. We are part of the community. All we want is a fair price.”
Documents show the couple met light rail project staff in August last year, five days after being tipped off by the media.
By October they had received an departmental letter and two months later lodged an official objection, only for Transport’s District director Alan Stone to rule that “the grounds of objection do not provide sufficient reason to discontinue the resumption”.
A Transport and Main Roads spokesman said offers of compensation were based on independent valuation advice, prepared and rigorously reviewed to protect the rights of all parties and remained commercial-in-confidence.
“It is the department’s intention to reach a fair and reasonable settlement with all property owners and TMR remains committed to addressing all property resumptions as compassionately as possible, respecting the rights of all parties,” the spokesman said.
After obtaining opinions from valuers and lawyers, the Coast couple have hired a consultant team which, shocked by the house price offer, has told the Government “they’re dreamin”.
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