A long-running feud between Sydney neighbours that dramatically boiled over into a physical altercation involving a circular saw in late 2024 has taken another turn, with an assault charge withdrawn in what one side branded a “miscarriage of justice”.
Filmmaker Garnet Mae, 53, has been locked in a years-long dispute with Grayson Cole, 65, over a who owns a small shared easement behind their terrace homes on Cleveland Street in Redfern.
Mr Mae — who lives in McMahons Point on the lower north shore — has been visiting the inner-city home two doors up from Mr Cole since his brother purchased it for $1.8 million in 2019.
Mr Cole, who works in film costuming with his wife, has been living in his five-bedroom property since 1987. The row of four terraces sit on a shared laneway through which owners have had legal right of way since 1883.
The exact boundaries are unclear, however, as Mr Cole’s home sits on land held under Old System title, rather than as a modern Torrens allotment. Mr Cole claims he owns the portion of the lane behind his house through adverse possession, or “squatter’s rights”, having continuously occupied it for almost 40 years.
Mr Mae’s brother’s title includes a 78 centimetre-wide strip of land running nearly the length of the lane. Mr Mae has cleared greenery planted by Mr Cole behind his property and used the area to store garbage bins.
In November 2024, simmering tensions exploded into a physical altercation.
Mr Cole had temporarily erected a wire fence behind his back gate to protect three fern trees. While Mr Cole was home, Mr Mae turned up and removed the fencing and began cutting the trees with a circular saw.
A furious Mr Cole rushed over and dramatically threatened to turn the saw back on Mr Mae, kicking and punching him in the groin as the pair tussled.
“I will take your f**kin’ head off,” he said, before grabbing the circular saw in dramatic video footage posted on Instagram by Mr Mae.
“You reckon I can’t take your f**kin’ saw? F**k you. All right. Let’s turn the f**kin’ thing on.”
Mr Cole told Mr Mae he had no right to be on his land and said, “Get off the f**kin’ property otherwise I will f**kin’ do you in, you stupid c**t”.
The elderly neighbour was later charged with common assault. Mr Cole, meanwhile, applied for an apprehended violence order (AVO) to protect him from Mr Mae.
“I just came out here and saw red,” Mr Cole told The Daily Mail last week.
“I grabbed him by the front of the shirt and shoved him back. All I did was push him from one side of the laneway to the other side, getting him further away from cutting the trees down.”
Mr Cole said until Mr Mae’s brother bought the property nearly seven years ago, his use of the land had never been challenged.
“There were five other owners before him and we never had an issue with them about us occupying that land,” he said.
When the matter returned to court last Monday, the assault charge against Mr Cole was withdrawn by the police prosecutor.
Filming a TikTok video outside Downing Centre Local Court, Mr Mae branded the decision to drop the charge “a f**king joke”.
The pair will be back at Downing Centre next month when Mr Cole’s AVO application against Mr Mae is heard.
Mr Mae is already the subject of a four-month AVO sought by police to protect his former partner, The Daily Mail reports.
Speaking to Nine’s A Current Affair last year, Mr Mae said he and his brother had been having issues with Mr Cole ever since they bought the property, claiming he had told them they had to “obey my rules” when a dispute over parking arose.
The issue gets murkier, given terraces have a ‘peace of the easement’ clause attached to the property title.
“The problem is, nobody knows who owns it,” Mr Mae said.
“Our property, strangely, goes all the way to the back wall and one metre goes into Grayson’s property and the neighbour between us and Grayson.
“The city is rife with laneways, nobody knows who owns them.”
The City of Sydney council refuses to take sides in the dispute, believing all residents should share the space.
Judge Jennifer Atkinson previously described the land title situation as a “festering sore” and suggested Mr Cole go to the Supreme Court or the Office of the Registrar General to have the issue resolved.
“They’ve got to live in close proximity,” Judge Atkinson said.
“Life’s too short.”
Mr Cole is formally in the process of claiming the disputed land.
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