- Neighbour claims Bobolas family sleeps in a tunnel
- Contractors unearth toy pirate sword, road sign, playhouse tent
- Mary and Liana Bobolas out combing the streets at 3am
- Boss says workers nervous about taking on Bobolas ‘junk’
Lots and lots of pictures are here with the story.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/bobolas-family-hoarders-in-the-thick-of-it-as-big-cleanup-...
THE hoarding Bobolas family sleep on occasion inside a tunnel dug in the front yard, according to a local.
Residents have shared their stories about the notorious family on Boonara Ave, Bondi to provide an insight into life sharing a street with hoarders.
Terry Cudmore, 71, has resided opposite the Bobolas’ Californian style home since the 1970s.
He claims his property has been devalued, rats live between the walls of his home and the smell is a constant frustration.
Mr Cudmore believes Mary, Elena and Liana Bobolas sleep outside because they cannot fit inside the house as it is also filled with items they have collected.
“They actually burrow under,” he said. “When it rains they have big umbrellas over the rubbish, that’s where they sleep, they can’t get in the house.
“It would be like a small-sized bathroom and they just put down tarpaulin and plastic bags, that’s what keeps them dry.”
Colm Drumgoole, another local, is amazed by how well the Bobolas family know the legal system. He said the way they use, “the law to the effect that they’ve done is amazing”.
THE clean-up has commenced at Sydney’s most notorious hoarding family’s home and we can finally see what the Bobolas family has been guarding so zealously.
As contracted rubbish removers attack the hoarder’s home on Boonara Ave, Bondi, you might think they’d find some treasures, but you’d be wrong.
“It’s all rubbish,” Paul Younan, 30, co-owner of The Rubbish Taxi said after filling another skip.
He went into detail about what was being pulled from the rubble this morning while waiting for his trucks to return.
A “Give Way Round About” sign was the most peculiar object they discovered.
“I’ve had some hoarder jobs but this is a bit dirtier,” Mr Younan said.
“(There is) power cords, tiles, stuff off the streets and trolleys.
“The backyard is overgrown you can’t see what’s underneath the grass.”
They expect to remove about 50 square units of rubbish today.
Mr Younan said his workers were apprehensive about taking on the Bobolas family home’s junk.
“They were a bit nervous leading up to the job today, I was pampering them,” he said.
“Our plan is to do our job and if there are any issues the Council will take over.”
The rubbish is all being taken to a dumping site in Alexandria.
Neighbour Terry Cudmore, 71, has lived opposite the Bobolas home since 1977 and says the enormous mound of garbage has been a constant problem for the street.
Unless the council made a rolling order and cleaned up the front yard as the material accumulated, the problem wouldn’t go away, he said.
“It’s a bandaid (solution). It hasn’t worked ... why would it work now?” Mr Cudmore told AAP.
He claims the women have stored “bags and bags and bags” in a house down the street, ready to top up the pile once the contractors leave.
“As soon as (the removalists) are gone, they’ll bring them all back.”
He claimed the eyesore had shaved $480,000 off the sale of the house next door.
Three trucks and 11 workers started the arduous task of clearing all the rubbish and junk from the Bobolas family home Bondi shortly after the scheduled 7am start.
Mary Bobolas and one of her daughters was still trying to gather pot plants as the workers started clearing items into a skip.
She remained shoulder to shoulder with the contractors.
Police instructed her to stay away from the workers and machinery, “for safety issues”.
Daughter Liana Bobolas stayed inside the home, sitting on the porch during the clean-up.
Elena Bobolas was asked if it was possible to live inside a home filled with this much rubbish and her response was, “We are living in this home”.
Waverley Council have hired a security guard from ECS International Security who is also at the Boonara Ave home this morning in the lead-up to the cleaning process — the 14th ratepayer-funded clean-up of the property.
Some members of the family stood vigil at their home overnight and even added to the junk in their yard.
Mary Bobolas and daughter Liana were seen walking up and down their street about 3am, with Mary seen carrying a plastic bag back to the house.
A clean-up was arranged for March 17 but an appeal at the Land and Environment Court cancelled that before a new date was set.
Legal action and clean-ups have cost Waverley Council ratepayers more than $350,000 and there is expected to be enough rubbish at the house this time to fill an Olympic-sized pool.
Lots and lots of pictures are here with the story.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/bobolas-family-hoarders-in-the-thick-of-it-as-big-cleanup-...
lNg!nU~$(KGrHgoOKiQEjlLmZ!24BJ1JGMh6DQ~~_7.JPG?set_id=81 "vampire-teddy"){kind=avatar}
