Sitting tight

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33519, 27 April 1974, Page 12

Sitting tight

(By

MICHAEL CONNOLLY)

Mary Anne Campigli, aged 84, has won the right to keep her tiny cottage in the middle of a big carpark in Melbourne.

But Mary, a spinster, agreed not to sell the cottage for 21 years — by which time she will be 105 — without first offering it to the council. The council and Miss Campigli settled the matter privately after a 20-month Supreme Court action to stop the house, in Station Street, Camberwell, being taken over. The council will pay her legal costs. “Now it’s over, just leave me alone in peace," Miss Campigli said. “I want to stay as long as 1 can — until 1 die. “I’ve never had to fight like this before and I hope 1 never have to again. “It’s not fair for anybody, especially a person getting on in years.” “Bolt out of blue” She said the news she could stay in the house

was “the happiest bolt out of the blue.” Camberwell’s Mayor, Councillor Dorothy Laver, said the settlement was “pleasing to the council and no doubt satisfactory to Miss Campigli.” She would not say why

the council had stopped trying to get the house. The council would get it eventually. Miss Campigli said she was “feeling the strain.” “1 might start by putting some flowers into the garden.”