Check your title deeds - Do you really own your own land?

Spare a thought for Bruce Leslie - one of nature's true gentlemen from Goodna.

Bruce is an internationally-renowned engineer and the the proud owner of the new Goodna Technology Park, employing over 80 staff with plans for expansion. Or, so he thought!

Stage 1 of this brand new high-tech park - located on a 5.9 hectare block of land at Goodna with fabulous Brisbane River frontage - opened this week.

This is the site of the 2006 world-famous experiment between NASA in the United States and mining equipment at Goodna which was operated by remote control from Boston Massachusetts to see if mining could be conducted on the moon via remote radio control.





The 5.9 hectare bock of land at Brisbane Terrace Goodna -
the site of Goodna Technology Park.

The experiment was reported in The Queensland Times:

GOODNA FIRM ENTERS SPACE RACE
October 27, 2006
GABRIELLE WHEATON

NASA is not coming to Ipswich. Why? Because it won't need to thanks to the research of CSIRO and Go 4 Mining at Goodna.

Go 4 Mining owner Bruce Leslie said CSIRO had been using its drag line rig, probably the only one of its kind in the world, to conduct tests of its own.

Reports in the media stated NASA would come to Ipswich to conduct tests on mining equipment for future use on the moon, but Mr Leslie said these plans had been delayed.

Mr Leslie said CSIRO had been conducting research into the automation of mining machines for 10 to 15 years, and were the most advanced in the world. CSIRO senior research scientist Kane Usher said the technology had already been tested on Tuesday, using a NASA researcher working out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

Bruce Leslie feeling like he's been devoured by a
shark after the monumental property transfer stuff-up.

Scientists are trying to establish the world's first fully automatic remote-controlled drag line system, capable of moving huge amounts of dirt when strip mining. "Mining is going to be the same anywhere off-world or here on Earth," Mr Usher said.

Mr Usher said the technology had been remotely tested twice so far through a website, the first time in September, and all the results were reported to NASA.

"It's just an internet page so it can be operated from anywhere, all you need is Firefox, but obviously the machine has to be on and all our software has to be running," he said.

Mr Leslie thought it was good to get exposure because of the agency's involvement and said the technology could save Australia's mining industry up to $100 million a year. Australia has 70 drag lines, about one fifth the number in the western world. Mr Leslie said before Go 4 Mining started designing drag line buckets most equipment came from overseas.

"Since we've been doing the designs for a company in Mackay they've picked up 80% of the market," Mr Leslie said. "Queensland is well advanced in drag line research and our work here is easily the highest quality in the world."

He explained the majority of drag lining was tedious work, but required a lot of skill, which was why operators would always be needed despite the advances in technology.

The automated drag lines would hopefully increase production while also allowing operators a reprieve from the most mundane aspects of the job.

"It's high-level task planning where the operator decides where to dig and dump. It makes operation more efficient and makes it easier for an operator to do a really good job and who knows, it could end up on the moon," Mr Leslie said.

Bruce decided to subdivide his 7.9 hectare block which was processed through two sets of solicitors, the bank and the Titles Office earlier this year.

There was a new 2 hectare block which was intended to be sold off to a company called Ravenshore Pty Ltd with Leslie Consulting Pty Ltd retaining the balance 5.9 hectare parcel of land, where Bruce was constructing his 2-storey office block.

By a sheer fluke, local Councillor Paul Tully was examining the property ownership changes this week which had been received by the Ipswich City Council and noticed that the 5.9 hectare block - which Bruce Leslie thought that he had owned - had actually been transferred to Ravenshore Pty Ltd.

Ravenshore Pty Ltd thought they were buying a vacant block next door to Bruce's property for $2.31 milllion. But legally, they had acquired the adjoining 5.9 hectare property with Brisbane River frontage - plus a fantastic new office block - with an all-up estimated value approaching $10 million.

The vacant block of land next door which was
accidentally transferred to the wrong owner.

Bruce legally ended up with the horse paddock next door when he thought he was the rightful owner of the u-beaut Technology Park development.

But all's well that ends well.

Documents were rushed to the Titles Office and lodged at 2.11pm yesterday to correct the error.

A similar problem occurred in Caswell Street Gailes in the 1950s with half a dozen properties wrongly located on adjoining properties. That debacle took over 30 years to correct.

The new office block at Goodna Technology Park -
the cause of a legal dilemma.

The moral of this story is to personally check and re-check documents being lodged with the Titles Office.

Although it is a rare occurrence, mistakes can occur between vendors, purchasers, solicitors, banks and the Titles Office.

Why don't you check right now that you legally own the property you are living in?

If there is a problem, see a solicitor quickly because under Queensland law, a property sold in good faith to a third party becomes the property of the third party and normally cannot be returned to the true owner.

Do you know of a property transfer stuff-up?
Email Queensland Consumer Watch with full details of the case.