Nature Strips

They sound like they might be something to do with intimate waxing, and they represent both a burden and an opportunity for Australians

It was only when I looked into it that I discovered how many names there were for the bit of land between a footpath and the road.  Americans mostly know it as the tree lawn, but in some states it's the berm, or if you're really lucky, the devil's strip.  Where I come from it's called the verge, but Aussies know it as the nature strip.

Here, it's the responsibility of the householder whose property it fronts to take care of it, which Brits coming to Australia may find a bit onerous - back home it's generally the council's problem.  Being a public-spirited bunch, most Aussies like to keep their strips nice and trim, either maintaining them themselves or paying specialists a small sum to come round every week and do the work for them.  And since that is quite enough euphemism for one paragraph, I will move on.

When they're not hassle, nature strips hold the promise of free stuff.  Local councils in many areas will collect hard rubbish that's left out on the nature strip, but not before a furtive trail of ragpickers has inspected it to see whether there's anything that could be re-used.  And thanks to the nature strip, the Meynell family will not find themselves going cold next winter.  I have managed to harvest a couple of tons of high quality firewood that my neighbours have cleared from their own gardens and left out for passers-by to collect.  

Nature strip and hard rubbish in perfect harmony

Finding pre-loved property on your neighbour's nature strip is not always free of risk.  The Victoria Police - nationally famed for their hardline approach to, well, everything - decided to start prosecuting those who took hard rubbish before the council could collect it.  The pretext for this seems to have been that once it was left out, it became the council's property, and taking it was in effect stealing from them.  The fact that the local authorities were probably only too pleased to have less junk to clear up was not, apparently, a consideration.

Fortunately the police have now realised that the ownership of the rubbish may be a grey area.  Perhaps more importantly, the fact that they were making themselves look stupid by attempting to criminalise people for what was basically recycling also seems to have percolated through.  The case of a man who was recently arrested and later released, after being suspected of attempting to make off with a vaccum cleaner, suggests that they've reviewed their policy.  This is a relief to many urban Victorians who object to paying for firewood.