93-year-old widower with dementia to get kicked out of his home of 60 years
A widower with dementia has been told to pack up his belongings and leave his Brisbane home of 60 years to make way for a school drop-off zone.
Trevor Connolly, 93, had no plans on leaving his Coorparoo home in Brisbane's south-east, until a notification of resumption, also known as a compulsory acquisition letter, arrived in his mailbox in October with notice he needs to leave before Christmas.
The letter notified Connolly of the Department of Education's plans to forcibly acquire their home and build a new school.
The movement of the school is a knock-on effect of Brisbane's expansion plans to accommodate the hosting the 2032 Olympics.
The expansion is resulting in the demolition of the heritage-listed East Brisbane State School, which is being rebuilt on the site of the Coorparoo Secondary College.
Mr Connolly's home is the last domino to fall in the construction plans, having been designated to be demolished and turned into a drop-off zone for the new school.
The 93-year-old widower described the state's decision to acquire his home as "lunacy" and "madness", saying there are numerous other properties they could have chosen.
"You feel so useless, what can you do about it?" Connolly told 7News.
"There's no need to knock the house down, there's plenty of room next door."
He said the idea of moving out of the house he has called home for over half-a-century as "a heck of a change to even think about".
His daughter, Anne, didn't mince words when speaking about the state's Department of Education's plans, describing them as "quite brutal really, and insensitive".
Mr Connolly and the department are yet to enter negotiations into compensation for the widower's property, while a spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Education said, "Decisions to acquire land are not taken lightly."
Image credits: Seven