



An unusual neighbourhood dispute between a vegan and meat-eaters ended up in the Supreme Court of an Australian state, according to reports.

Cilla Carden, a vegan massage therapist from Girrawheen—a suburb of the city of Perth—was angry with the fish and meat smells coming from the barbecue in her neighbours' back yard.

"They've put [the barbecue] there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish. I can't enjoy my back yard, I can't go out there," Carden told Nine News Perth

Health-conscious Carden has also taken issue with neighbours smoking cigarettes in their garden because she says the fumes waft into her back yard. And, Carden says, she is fed up with the neighbours' children playing basketball and making noise.

"They just bang the wall anytime that I've been sleeping. Their kids with the basketballs, just banging... it vibrates this part of the house. It's been devastating, it's been turmoil, it's been unrest, I haven't been able to sleep."

Carden alleges that her neighbours have been cooking meat and fish in their garden on purpose and that it had caused her "undue offence," the BBC reported.

"It's deliberate, that's what I told the courts, it's deliberate," she told Nine News. "Exactly what I've wanted from the word go is to live my life in peace."

Carden eventually resorted to taking the case to the Supreme Court of the state of Western Australia, claiming that her neighbours' actions breached residential laws.

Carden also wanted to try and force neighbours to reduce their patio lighting, and reduce the amount of noise that their pets make.

However, her case was thrown out by a tribunal and a Supreme Court judge who ended up siding with the neighbours, saying her claims were unreasonable and lacking evidence, the BBC reported. Carden subsequently filed an appeal, but this has also been dismissed.

One of Carden's neighbours—who did not want to be identified—told Nine News that he wanted to keep the peace, and had removed a barbecue from his back yard and told his children to stop playing basketball.

"The Tribunal does not accept that [the parents], by allowing their children to play in the backyard... use the patio for small scooters or toys, constitutes reasonably a nuisance," a State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia found. "What they are doing is living in their backyard and their home as a family."

Despite these setbacks, Carden says she will keep fighting and is planning to return to the court soon.

Another neighbour—who also wished to remain anonymous—said in a statement provided to Nine News: "Ms Carden's demands were proven to be not reasonable and indeed were to the detriment of the other owners' ability to enjoy their lots reasonably and acceptably."

Local lawyer John Hammond said that taking this kind of case to the state Supreme Court was a step too far.

"If you're having a dispute, you should go next door and try and sort it out face to face because if you don't do it that way you're going to be up for a world of misery. Going to the supreme court is an extreme option," he told Nine News.