Imagine being so petty that you get into a 12-month-long feud with an elderly man because you refuse to admit you’re wrong. No, I’m not talking about your Aries friends, I’m talking about an actual beef that went down in NSW. Take my hand friends, we’re off to Coonabarabran.
86-year-old George Collis and Transport for NSW have been in a back-and-forth battle for the last year, with everything coming to a gritty end in January. But before we get into that, let’s get some context in ya.
Collis lives on a farm near Coonabarabran, which is in Western NSW. About 12 months ago he asked Transport for NSW to clear a bunch of trees on his road — this is where his troubles began.
He claims Transport for NSW dug a bit too deep when removing those pesky trees, digging up a table drain and leaving his street extremely susceptible to harsh rainfall overflowing from a nearby highway.
And as you may remember, 2022 was La Niña’s bitch and it rained more often than not. This caused Collis’ driveway to become virtually impassable, as he lives at the bottom of a hill.
“I realise everybody’s got water problems and mine are really small, but they’re big to me,” he told the ABC.
“I walked out one night to see where all the water was coming from and realised they hadn’t cleared it, but dug it deeper.”
This is where the beef starts to get spicy. Transport for NSW denies Collis’ claims that its team did anything wrong to his road.
Collis says that he’s called for an ambulance three times since this whole dilemma emerged (due to his declining health) and the paramedic team have had difficulty reaching his house due to the water.
For 12 months he has sent letters to Transport for NSW to come and fill in the roads with gravel but received no helpful response.
“I go to bed at night thinking about it, I wake up in the morning thinking about it,” he said.
“I’ve certainly got stress from it.”
On October 25, 2022, Collis received a response from Transport for NSW acknowledging that this ongoing feud between both parties has “caused distress”.
The letter told Collis he would be supplied with 66 tonnes of gravel to help him. It also told him that he was on a 12-month ban from contacting them again, as his letters had put a “significant strain” on the agency’s resources. YIKES.
“I said to them, even with the gravel it’s not going to fix the water problem,” Collis told the ABC.
“My son and I have put gravel on the driveway twice already, and it just washes away when the water gets in there.”
Despite this, Transport for NSW arrived at Collis’ house and dumped 66-tonnes of gravel on his driveway in a massive pile. ABC has the pics if you wanna see them. It’s huge petty bitch areas.
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW told the ABC that the agency is now “satisfied with the findings of the investigation”.
“There are a number of long-standing drains, which allow for the safe and effective movement of water in the area,” they said.
Well, well, well.
Imagine dumping 66-tonnes of gravel on someone’s driveway after ghosting them for 12 months just to hit them with the “I’m satisfied with my response”. Truly wild areas.
