Jarmyn brothers ordered to clean up junkyard at Willaston home, stop unapproved car repair business
A court has ordered two brothers to deal with a huge junkyard at their childhood home - and stop their illegal car repair business - after complaints.
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Two brothers ordered to clean up a huge unapproved junkyard at their childhood home and stop an illegal car repair business say a council took them to court only after someone “got the s**ts”.
Nigel Jarmyn and Patrick Jarmyn were ordered earlier this month to clean out the junk within six months and stop using the land as a junkyard or car repair station, at a sprawling property in Willaston, north of Adelaide, where they live with their parents.
Gawler Council sought the order against the pair in the Environment Court after last year receiving a noise complaint, prompting council staff to discover commercial vehicle repairs were being done on the land - which was also used to store a large number of items including disused bathtubs.
In her judgment, Commissioner Helen Dyer upheld a council-sought order that no more than four cars could be kept at the sprawling 3573 sqm block, even though the Jarmyns were “car enthusiasts” and stored a significant number of their own cars at the property.
Commissioner Dyer said more than 30 vehicles plus at least four boats, a jet ski, eight trailers, a truck, a dune buggy, three motorbikes and a quad bike were stored on the land – and the Jarmyn brothers said the “overwhelming majority” of cars belonged to the family.
“The land also houses a number of pushbikes both complete and incomplete, and an array of car parts, scrap metal and other miscellaneous items such as disused whitegoods, barbecues, drums, barrels, crates and tubs, planter pots, miscellaneous household items, baths, gas bottles and cylinders, tyres, building materials, crates, toys, wire, plastic and metal tubing, tools, ladders, wheelbarrows, and timber,” Commissioner Dyer said.
Nigel Jarmyn told The Advertiser his parents had owned the property since the 1970s and the situation was “ridiculous” and “a joke”.
He said the whole thing had started because someone “got the s**ts with us” over noise coming from the property, adding it stemmed from jealousy.
“You can’t win against the council,” he said.
Nigel gave evidence the land was seen by family and friends as a place to bring items they no longer wanted or items for storage.
Commissioner Dyer said the brothers viewed many of the items as “prospectively useful, and therefore found them difficult to part with”.
She said this constituted a junkyard land use.
Nigel told the court he spent about 20 hours a week working on vehicles in a shed on the property, representing his sole income – attracting clients through word of mouth.
Patrick gave evidence his income comprised of working in the shed and Centrelink.
Commissioner Dyer said this constituted unapproved motor repair land use, and found the Jarmyns should pay costs to Gawler Council for the court proceedings.
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