17 August 2012

Postie riding on my lawn

| jimmy1
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We recently landscaped our yard and had turf laid on our front verge/nature strip as part of the project.

The work was all planned with a letter box built into a wall on the front boundary and paving coming off the driveway for the sole purpose of giving Australia Post easy access.

Unfortunately, the Postie would rather launch his motor bike over various low obstacles/jumps and carve some furrows in our new lawn.

As I am at work when they come I have not caught them in the act and my polite request at the post office has had no effect.

Does anyone have an idea for stopping Postie lawn vandalism?

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GordonResidential7:49 am 23 Aug 12

Talk to Aus Post again. Complaining here won’t do much. N

HenryBG said :

I guess your confusion highlights the reason we need laws in the first place: some people just can’t figure out how to do the right thing without being told.

Just like the laws about drink-driving?

HenryBG said :

AG Canberra said :

Just looked at the form we are all supposed to complete to ‘develop’ a nature strip.

Management of Land by Applicant
20. The area shall be managed by the Applicant in an orderly and safe manner. When vacated it should be left in a clean and tidy condition and reinstated with topsoil and grass to the satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.
21. Any damage to grassed surfaces, footpaths, kerbs and gutters, trees, irrigation systems or any other installations or services contained within the unleased land must be fully restored by the Applicant, to the complete satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.

Does anyone know anybody that has turfed their nature strip (when selling up) to satisfy this requirement?

Who determins who caused what damage? What about approved street trees causing damage to footpaths?

Is this a joke?

Seems perfectly straightforward to me: it’s not your land. You want to do something with it, apply for permission. When you’ve finished, put it back the way it was before you started. Nothing could be simpler.

I guess your confusion highlights the reason we need laws in the first place: some people just can’t figure out how to do the right thing without being told.

Geez you crack me up…

Thanks for your input Henry. Insightful and helpful.

My point was that I am unaware of anyone ever actually returning their nature strip to fresh grass upon selling (if the grass wasn’t there when they sold).

I have lived here for more than 40 years and have never heard of this being enforced. Has it ever been?

AG Canberra said :

Just looked at the form we are all supposed to complete to ‘develop’ a nature strip.

Management of Land by Applicant
20. The area shall be managed by the Applicant in an orderly and safe manner. When vacated it should be left in a clean and tidy condition and reinstated with topsoil and grass to the satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.
21. Any damage to grassed surfaces, footpaths, kerbs and gutters, trees, irrigation systems or any other installations or services contained within the unleased land must be fully restored by the Applicant, to the complete satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.

Does anyone know anybody that has turfed their nature strip (when selling up) to satisfy this requirement?

Who determins who caused what damage? What about approved street trees causing damage to footpaths?

Is this a joke?

Seems perfectly straightforward to me: it’s not your land. You want to do something with it, apply for permission. When you’ve finished, put it back the way it was before you started. Nothing could be simpler.

I guess your confusion highlights the reason we need laws in the first place: some people just can’t figure out how to do the right thing without being told.

photos or it didn’t happen.

Just looked at the form we are all supposed to complete to ‘develop’ a nature strip.

Management of Land by Applicant
20. The area shall be managed by the Applicant in an orderly and safe manner. When vacated it should be left in a clean and tidy condition and reinstated with topsoil and grass to the satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.
21. Any damage to grassed surfaces, footpaths, kerbs and gutters, trees, irrigation systems or any other installations or services contained within the unleased land must be fully restored by the Applicant, to the complete satisfaction of the Territory and at no expense to the Territory.

Does anyone know anybody that has turfed their nature strip (when selling up) to satisfy this requirement?

Who determins who caused what damage? What about approved street trees causing damage to footpaths?

Is this a joke?

You’re overlooking the easiest option, stop getting mail! So much better for the environment as well 😉

jimmy1 said :

The postie trap description and crash videos will help sooth my embittered heart as I file away the Canturf invoice and grieve for all those long lost landscaping dollars.

Did you try the lodging an online complaint using the auspost web form?
https://contactus.auspost.com.au/app/ask#email

Generally someone should respond in 1-2 days & it is harder to ignore/”lose” than a letter.

Two words:

Stop strips.

Nightshade said :

JC said :

Just remember that the nature strip is not yours, so really the postie is well within their rights to ride on your nice new lawn rightly or wrongly.

There is definitely potential for conflict when residents are expected to look after the nature strip in front of their house, despite it not being their land, but the public is allowed to wreck their efforts with impunity. Why would anyone bother to do more than the bare minimum?

You can do both. Out front of my place I have a nice lawn and the postie rides on it without any damage.

I guess the issue with the OP is it is all nice and new and maybe a bit soft, so the answer of course is to put up a sting line until such time as the canturf has taken root, after which a daily ride by the postie will have SFA effect. Quite simple really.

Jimmy1
As you said “As I am at work when they come I have not caught them in the act and my polite request at the post office has had no effect.”

How do you know it’s the postie not some local kid on a motorbike?

I had a postie who liked to kick over my full garbage bins in my driveway on “garbage days” because it “interfered” with him taking a short cut from my letterbox to the next letterbox inside the boundary of the house next door.

For starters the bins were legally placed where they are supposed to be placed for pick up and nowhere near my letter box. I caught him doing it one day and he had the nerve to swear at me and say it “served me right for getting in his way”.

I wrote a letter to Australia Post and six weeks later wrote another letter and three months later wrote another letter and finally was told that the postie had moved to another suburb but they hadn’t spoken to him about his behaviour.

I’m thinking he moved to YOUR suburb 🙂

p1 said :

A single strand of razor wire, stretched tight at neck height, electrified and attached to anti-personnel mines.

Ah, the subtle approach

You cant beat the classics

jimmy1 said :

The postie trap description and crash videos will help sooth my embittered heart as I file away the Canturf invoice and grieve for all those long lost landscaping dollars.

If paying to beautify the ACT government’s land the biggest mistake you ever make then you’re doing pretty good in the bigger picture

Ever seen the movie ‘Tremors’? Then you know what to get.

JC said :

Just remember that the nature strip is not yours, so really the postie is well within their rights to ride on your nice new lawn rightly or wrongly.

There is definitely potential for conflict when residents are expected to look after the nature strip in front of their house, despite it not being their land, but the public is allowed to wreck their efforts with impunity. Why would anyone bother to do more than the bare minimum?

Youy are getting of lightly.

I know someone who demolished the stone retaining wall at the front of their place, dug out a flat place to park their van and built a new wooden retaining wall around the new flat area.

Only told be told that as it was government land and they didn’t have approval, please return it to how it was. Or else!

Cost them a fortune.

Fancy wanting to have a nice front yard, you low life bastard, you should volunteer yourself to be horse whipped in the centre of the city for even thinking such things

Australia Post wins!
If our postie wants a motorcross wonderland he gets one. Stolen commodores also welcome.
I will have to harden up and learn to love a Canberra streetscape carved by all-terrain postie bikes and joyriding car thieves.
The postie trap description and crash videos will help sooth my embittered heart as I file away the Canturf invoice and grieve for all those long lost landscaping dollars.

Oops, i misread the OP, the nature strip isn’t your property, so you’re going to have to toughen up.

Under these circumstances, the Barrett light .50 is your friend. Accept no substitutes.

As many have pointed out – the nature strip is not your land!

People are allowed to walk on it, posties are allowed to ride on it, as I have discovered local teenagers seem to think they can have sex on it, and you are definitely not allowed to put obstacles / unconventional landscaping on it without obtaining permission.

Get a whole lot of dog poo and place it in his path.

Rip out your letterbox and get a PO Box

I had a postie smash a hole in my garage wall, because he couldn’t work out how to manouvre his motor bike. The tyre marks from the bike made it obvious. Unfortunately, Aust Post couldn’t care less when I rang them, as I didn’t have footage of it happening.

If the postie has just delivered next door, why wouldn’t she just stay on the nature strip?

Also, what about someone using a mobility scooter. Are you blocking their path to force them onto the road?

OK, here’s what to do.

Next to you letter box, dig a hole about 1 metre square, and about 1.5 metres deep. Sharpen some bamboo stakes and embed them in the bottom of the hole with the sharpened end sticking straight up. Smear some fresh faeces on the sharp parts of the bamboo stakes. Weave a bamboo mat and use it to cover the hole. Scatter some grass and leaves over the mat so it looks like normal ground.

When the postie crashes through the mat he will be cut up by the bamboo stakes, and the faeces will be pushed into the wounds, infecting them almost immediately.

That will teach this bastard to ride his bike on your nature strip.

get your son into postie stunting

http://youtu.be/f_QfkUtzsak

How_Canberran7:04 pm 17 Aug 12

How Canberran! Only in the ACT would a resident begrudge the local postie using thier manicured verge as a motocross track.

You have much bigger worries my friend. During hours of darkness, stolen white Holden Commodores slowly cruise the streets looking for newly minted verges for ‘donut’ practice!
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

You obviously didn’t put good enough jumps in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAKyiWhPGA

embrace the postie, put in a jump and a berm leading to the mailbox and a few whoops coming out.

its not often you get a chance to do something really nice for someone

wildturkeycanoe5:42 pm 17 Aug 12

Rip up the turf and put down some nice 50mm diameter gravel instead.

You could have a word with the postie or the post office but wouldn’t count on getting your mail in a timely manner.

Lodge an application to landscape the verge. Do it per the rules and consistent with the street scape. Try low plants that are relatively trample-proof to subtly guide the foot/bike traffic. Best you can do without the issues raised.

It’s not “your lawn”. It’s public land.

In fact, if you’ve placed obstacles on the government land outside your front property boundary, you had better make sure your public liability insurance is uptodate, and that it covers you making a nuisance of yourself on public land.

Some garden stakes, a string line, and plastic bags hanging from the string

Just remember that the nature strip is not yours, so really the postie is well within their rights to ride on your nice new lawn rightly or wrongly.

Some sort of “poles & string” contraption – not significant enough to be considered a fence, but enough to give the hint. Make sure it has some sort of highly visible markers on the line.

or

A single strand of razor wire, stretched tight at neck height, electrified and attached to anti-personnel mines.

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