It’s hard to have much sympathy for the Albany architect who fitted his ‘dream home’ for gas only to find the local piped gas supplier his shutting up shop.

Haven’t they heard that we are all moving to electrical.  Some councils won’t approve new apartments with gas cooktops. Why?

Well, there’s the environment, the fact that we were warned of the dangers to family health from gas stoves and heaters back in 2022, and there’s simple economics.

Electricity is getting cheaper and will continue to do so if the renewable supplies aren’t gobbled up by data centres.  Gas is getting more expensive, especially with a lot of our local supplies being sold overseas.

Add to that the discovery of ghost homes in our suburbs (just in time for Halloween, last week) and the prison that’s about to be redeveloped for housing, and lots more, and you have our weekly quantum of quirk from Leftfield Communications.

Free Reads

Domain

Melbourne couple sell $693,000 Craigieburn home to retire on a houseboat
A Melbourne couple is swapping suburban life for retirement on a houseboat after selling their Craigieburn home for $693,000 to a first-home buyer.

Insurance moguls revealed as owners of $80m Sydney mansion
The mystery buyers who paid more than $80 million for a Rose Bay mansion have been revealed as two local finance moguls and former schoolmates.

The unlikely Aussie suburbs hiding thousands of ‘ghost homes’
Australia may face an acute housing shortage, but thousands of homes sit completely empty across the country.

ABC Online

ATCO gas shutdown to force Albany architect onto bottled gas after building dream home
An Albany architect who spent thousands on gas appliances for his new home has been caught out by ATCO’s plan to shut its gas network, with 8000 Albany customers needing to switch to electricity or bottled gas.

Realestate.com.au

Multigenerational goes mainstream: How shared living is reshaping Australian home design
As more Australians house multiple generations under one roof, the family home is being reimagined around privacy rather than sheer size.

Minister calls for more prefab housing
There is a new push for Australia to embrace prefabricated housing to lift productivity, cut costs and speed up supply, with a goal of making modular homes mainstream by 2036.

Data centre building boom hits $18b as energy demand threatens power grid
Australia is now spending more building data centres to power the AI boom than on new offices and warehouses combined.

Prison union slams NSW Coalition plan to replace Long Bay jail with housing
The NSW Coalition has renewed its call to turn Long Bay jail land into 12,000 new homes, drawing immediate condemnation from the public sector union.

Last standing 100yo beach shack crowned Australia’s best reno
A humble 1920s weatherboard cottage that refused to be swallowed by surrounding high-rises has beaten mega-mansions to win Australia’s best renovation of the year.

Real Commercial – Free

Is the straw debate about to pressure food retailers again?
A South Korean study suggesting paper straws may be worse for the planet than plastic over their full life cycle could reignite the straw debate for food retailers.

Buyers of beloved Art Deco Cinema revealed
Fears that the historic Roseville Cinemas would close have been allayed after cinephile siblings bought the heritage-listed site for more than $8 million.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

Why the Willy Wonka of Hotels Keeps Buying the Hardest Assets
Hotel mogul Jerry Schwartz owns 15 hotels, a brewery, a seaplane business and solar farms, with a 16th hotel coming in London.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

‘She’s been bending over backwards’: Government backs Rinehart helipad
Gina Rinehart has gained an ally in her fight to use the roof of her new Perth headquarters as a helipad, with WA planning minister John Carey saying the billionaire has been “bending over backwards” to appease the city council.

Gina Rinehart lawyers liken HQ helipad’s noise to a kettle as Perth digs in
Lawyers for Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, have likened the noise of a proposed helipad atop her mining headquarters to boiling an electric kettle, as a legal row over the plan begins.

The Sydney Morning Herald

After five years, motorist misery from Sydney motorway project set to end
A multibillion-dollar upgrade of one of Australia’s busiest motorways will be finished within weeks, ending almost five years of disruption for residents and drivers.

The Sydney suburbs most exposed to AI disruption
Sydney’s professional heartland is set to be reshaped by automation, with workers in the city’s inner suburbs more exposed to AI-driven disruption than anywhere else in Australia.

The prime slice of coastal Sydney with roads, paths – and almost no homes
A prime stretch of coastal land in Sydney’s south-east was readied more than a decade ago with roads, footpaths and lots for hundreds of new homes, yet only a handful have been built.

Western Sydney Airport is made for western Sydney. So how does travel there stack up? We tested it
With Sydney’s new airport up and running, the key question is how to get there.

Delta Goodrem settles on Sydney mansion with pool, pays $10.9m
Singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem and her guitarist husband Matthew Copley have bought a $10.9 million Rose Bay mansion with a pool.

John Paul Young sold a $266k Bronte home. It just resold for $12m
A Bronte home once owned by Love Is in the Air singer John Paul Young has resold at auction for $11.95 million to a local family.

The Age

Airport rail study was doctored to ensure Sunshine ‘won’ shortlist of routes, commission told
Financial estimates were doctored and a senior public servant threatened with the sack to ensure the Melbourne Airport Rail Link ran through Sunshine rather than a more direct city route, the Big Build royal commission has been told.

Eight-storey hub equivalent to 11 MCGs heads up $5 billion data centre queue
A sprawling data centre proposed for Melbourne’s west, equivalent in footprint to 11 MCGs, heads a queue of nine such projects awaiting planning decisions before the state election.

The Brisbane Times

My suburb is split between grotty sharehouses and ritzy family homes. That’s its charm
Every afternoon at the St Lucia and Taringa roundabout, a man named Franky sits on his balcony above a long-closed restaurant and waves at passers-by, in an affectionate portrait of a suburb split between grotty sharehouses and ritzy family homes, and charming for it.

The Courier Mail

Clive Palmer’s abandoned Coolum resort advertises trade jobs for 2027
Nearly a decade after shutting its doors, Clive Palmer’s controversial Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast has quietly begun advertising trade jobs for 2027.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

‘Sardine city’: Ray Stevens slams council over missing northern Gold Coast housing plan
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens has warned the Gold Coast beachfront will become a “sardine city” after the council’s draft City Plan omitted a planned 120,000-person northern suburb.

$8m lifeline: Car king takes on Gold Coast’s silent epidemic
At 92, one of the Gold Coast’s best-known businessmen is not taking it easy, instead making an $8 million decision that could change hundreds of lives.

The Newcastle Herald

Why this Birmingham Gardens development site sold at auction twice in three months
A prime development site near the University of Newcastle has sold at auction for the second time in three months.

‘We’re going to sell’: flood study fears force family to pack up and move
Deb Beesley’s parents’ house on a hill at Elermore Vale has never flooded in 32 years, but she now feels forced to sell, citing “grave fears” over what the City of Newcastle’s draft Hexham and Woodberry catchments flood study will do to land values and insurance premiums.

The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader

Taking back our streets: Mayor to meet Lime on e-bike no-go zones
Bayside Council mayor Christina Curry will meet Lime Bikes to raise community concerns about e-bike safety and parking and discuss improvements such as geofencing and no-go zones, and says she would welcome talks with other shared e-bike providers too.

WA Today

Massive Keralup gas plant could power neighbouring data centre
Western Australia’s biggest-ever proposed gas-fired power plant could power a neighbouring data centre, though the developer stresses no agreements have been signed.

Six decades on the dance floor: Inside Perth’s 10 oldest nightspots
Perth’s oldest nightclub is up for sale, and its age may surprise you, a look inside the city’s 10 oldest surviving nightspots, which range from 44 to 63 years old.