Welcome to the “Nupela Pasin” !!

A man who found a skeleton left to decompose for up to six
months in a Sydney housing commission apartment is shocked no-one
noticed the smell.

And after the gruesome discoverey, NSW Premier Morris Iemma
urged people to keep an eye on elderly neighbours.

“It is a lesson for us all that we can be better neighbours by
looking out for each other more often,” said, adding that the
Housing Department would review its inspection processes.

Wayne Cook, 50, said finding the bones, which police believe is
the remains of a 62-year-old man of Eastern European origin, was
“very gruesome''.

“His leg was on the floor and his head was on the bed – it just
looked terrible,'' he said.

He and two other residents of the Northcott complex in Surry
Hills were struck by a smell coming from Unit No 28 in C Block as
they walked past yesterday morning.

“The door was open and it stunk, really smelt,'' he said.

“There was three of us there – it was just disgusting, the smell
and looking at it, the body.

“It was terrible – all the windows were open and it just looked
very wrong.
The people next door didn't know anyone lived there – I don't know
how they missed the smell.''

A cleaner at the complex, who did not want to be named, said the
“whole building stinks'', and that was why no-one noticed the
death.

Mr Cook was furious with the Department of Housing for not
regularly checking on Northcott's elderly tenants.

“It's horrible that a bloke's got to die like that – I just
can't get over that in a place like this no-one knows,'' he
said.

“They don't give a shit about anybody – the housing commission
does not care about anybody … a knock on the door would have
solved everything.''

Dave Sharp, also a resident of Northcott, was with Mr Cook when
the skeleton was discovered.

Mr Sharp said he had been awake all night thinking about “the
thing'' they found.

“I've grown up around here and seen enough death and decay to
say that's not normal,'' he said.

The dead man's neighbour, Roy Eckersley. said he was unaware
anybody lived in the unit.

“No, I've never seen him before in my life,'' he said.

“I was surprised – you wouldn't have known anyone lived
there.

“I thought it was a nice building when I moved in, but it's
not.''

A NSW Department of Housing spokesman would not comment, saying
the man's death was a police matter and may be subject to a
coronial inquest.