The dead are not to blame

Litchfield Shire Council is confiscating blocks of land from members of the English aristocracy who have been dead for more than a century, the NT News reports.   The Council will auction off 12 properties in the rural area to recover more than $230,000 in unpaid rates.  But council president Mary Walsh said it was not the fault of the owners - they had been dead for more than a century. "The English gentry bought these parcels of land, sight unseen, back in the 1800s," she said.  "They are likely to have been passed down through six or seven generations since then.  They have been tied up in estates and the owners don't know that they own them."

Ms Walsh said many of the properties were from Southport.  "It was a thriving town in its day because the boats would come down."  When the council was formed in 1985 the owners of these blocks were obliged to pay rates.  These unpaid rates, plus more than 20 years of interest, have added up to more than $20,000 for each property.  "It's not like we are kicking anyone out of their homes," Ms Walsh said. "This is a piece of our history".

The council now plans to use powers in the Local Government Act for force the sale of the land to recover these rates. Last month, it published legal notices naming the dead owners - giving surviving descendants one month to come forward.  Otherwise, the remaining funds will go to the Territory Government's general revenue.

"Now we get all our rates returned," Ms Walsh said. "We always realised the price would only go up. We knew we would get our money back eventually."  The council also plans to deal with another 82 properties by mid next year.