Footy hardman Carl Ditterich fighting to save farm

LEGENDARY footy hard man Carl Ditterich won many fights on the football field, but faces a new battle he fears he won't win.

Water fight: Robert Currie, Alanna Ditterich, her father Bruce Currie and Carl Dittericg. Picture: Fiona Hamilton

LEGENDARY footy hard man Carl Ditterich won many fights on the football field, but faces a new battle he fears he won't win.

"Big Carl", 63, and his family face eviction from their century-old Swan Hill wheat farm over a contentious $600,000 water debt.

Lawyers for the former St Kilda and Melbourne star claim Goulburn-Murray Water officials knowingly took advantage of his ailing father-in-law by signing him up to a costly regional pipeline.

Bruce Currie, now 81, had just had surgery for cancer of the stomach and oesophagus, and was on morphine, when he signed the document in September 2000 without legal representation, according to court documents.

Now the water company wants the money and is threatening Supreme Court action to seize the land.

"It's just reprehensible what has happened here," said Ditterich, who lives on the property with his wife Alanna.

"They're forcing out an 81-year-old man who is in extremely poor health. The worry and stress over all of this has exacerbated his condition. It's David and Goliath sort of stuff."

The 400ha property at Woorinen South, about 11km north of Swan Hill, has been farmed by the Currie family since the 1890s.

Ditterich and Alanna, Bruce's daughter, live in a home on a separate title.

But Goulburn-Murray Water is claiming entitlement to the Ditterich land because the amount allegedly owed by Bruce is greater than the value of his property. Alanna is a trustee of the trust, which now owns Bruce's land.

In court documents seen by the Herald Sun, lawyers allege Mr Currie signed the document in his farm house in front of three Goulburn-Murray Water representatives in September 2000 believing it was an application to buy temporary water.

It was actually an agreement for use of water from the Woorinen pipeline.

"Bruce Currie . . . would not have signed the 7 September document had he understood its contents," the court document states.

"Reliance by the plaintiff on the document is unconscionable and . . . unenforceable."

The total debt of almost $600,000 being demanded by Goulburn-Murray Water in the Supreme Court is made up of construction costs, annual tariffs and interest.

But Ditterich said the property had not used a drop of water from the project because a 2km extension to the property was never built.

He said advice from leading QCs was that the tariff placed on the farm was invalid because the property was not connected to the pipeline -- and therefore not serviced.

A spokeswoman refused to comment.

Ditterich played 285 games for St Kilda and Melbourne between 1963 and 1980.

He appeared before the VFL tribunal 19 times and was suspended for a total of 30 games.