Engineer Dr Masood Falamaki paid $57,000 for the 565-square-metre parcel on Arter Avenue in July, 1995, with dreams of building his family home.

With council building approval, he began excavating that December, and by early 1997 had erected an arrangement of steel structural columns.

But the work never went any further.

Wollongong City Council officers became concerned the land had been over-excavated and determined the work was not in line with the original approval. 

It found the work risked damage to the adjoining road reserve and a neighbouring property, and began legal action against Dr Falamaki.

In February 1997, the Land and Environment Court determined that work could go ahead if Dr Falamaki – who graduated from the University of Wollongong in 1990 with a PhD in engineering – provided working drawings and a certificate from a qualified and independent structural engineer. 

According to a spokesman for the council, Dr Falamaki simply chose not to lodge the documents. Dr Falamaki disputed this when contacted by the Mercury.

He appealed the initial court decision and initiating a dizzying sequence of action in the NSW Court of Appeal, the High Court, the NSW Supreme Court and the Federal Court.

The court actions resulted in multiple orders against Dr Falamaki, including orders to pay council’s costs. 

However in 2010 he was declared bankrupt. 

Iranian-born Dr Falamaki claims court officials and council staff ‘‘lied’’ in their handling of his case, and alleges he was discriminated against.

‘‘I believe there was some prejudice ... based on my cultural, ethnic background,’’ he said. 

‘‘I couldn’t find any other reasons. I’m one of the most qualified [engineering] professionals in this country.’’

The Figtree property was one of six to go under the hammer at an auction on behalf of Wollongong Council on Wednesday night.

The sales were aimed at recouping $65,150 in unpaid rates, including $16,500 on the Figtree land.

The council is entitled to sell the properties of landholders who fail to pay their rates for a prolonged period, a council spokesman said.

‘‘The rates on these properties had been outstanding for more than five years,’’ he said.

‘‘Council has exhausted its normal recovery processes ... the sale of land is the last option available to council to recover the rates.’’

Of the six pieces of land on offer, the Figtree parcel was the only one zoned for residential use.

The auction, by agents MMJ at Wollongong Golf Club, drew a crowd of mostly speculators.

An 816-square-metre parcel at Helensburgh sold for $35,000 and a 543-square-metre wedge beside the Princes Highway at Russell Vale sold for $11,000, both to Fairy Meadow buyer Kia Vo. 

Mr Vo said he hoped to place advertising signs on the Russell Vale parcel and rent them out to businesses. 

An off-duty real estate agent put down a winning bid of $50,000 for 48,915 square metres of land at Huntley. 

He told the Mercury he would sit on the investment for the longer term, in the hope that services would extend to the area one day.  Parcels in bushland at Stanwell Park and Scarborough were passed in when bidding failed to continue past $8000 and $4000 respectively. 

Once the cost of the unpaid rates and fees are covered, council returns any profits from the sales to the original land owners.