Livingstone Shire is up for sale

Rockhampton Customs House - another local property that has emerged for sale on www.weblo.com - the internet's newest and perhaps most insane form of property investment.
Forget Amalgamation, Bill Ludwig has already lost control of Livingstone Shire - the mayor of that Shire goes by the name of Swidds.
Oh stop your giggling, Cr Strelow, for you’ve also been flicked from your throne at Rockhampton City Hall. The mayor of Rockhampton is a girl named, well, girl. What the blazes am I talking about? Well in case you haven’t heard there’s a new real estate boom sweeping the planet, and Central Queensland has got swept up right along with it.
It’s a real boom, involving real money, but the cities and individual properties (including your own home if you want to register it) and states are all virtual imitations of their real life counterparts.
That’s right, the internet is once again responsible for one of the most quirky but totally serious booms in history. I’m referring to www.weblo.com an online “game” in which people buy and sell virtual properties for real money. If the property exists in the real world, it is available for sale on weblo.com.
You purchase it with real money, and, like the real real estate market, hope its demand rises so you can sell it for more.
Scoffers might want to read a little further before pointing out the seemingly obvious absurdity of this concept. Since its Sept. 26, 2006 launch, Weblo.com has sparked a virtual real estate boom. California sold for $53,000 USD, New York State sold for $18,433 and the Canadian province of Ontario sold for $16,900.
Major cites and properties around the world have sold and resold. The virtual mayor of Washington D.C. sold his city for a 300 percent profit. The virtual Empire State Building, originally purchased for one dollar, recently sold for $250. Members flip virtual properties for profit just like in the real world.
Closer to home, a Canadian woman recently bought New South Wales for over $13 000 AUD.
“It’s like Monopoly on steroids. Every property, city and state from the real world is for sale at Weblo.com,” says Rocky Mirza, CEO and co-founder of Weblo.com.
But even closer to home, Swidds, the “mayor” of Livingstone Shire has put the city up for sale. That’s right, Livingstone Shire is currently up for auction on www.weblo.com, and the highest bidder gets to call him or herself mayor.
Another local landmark that can be found on the worldwide auction block is Rockhampton’s Customs House. Weblo is a game, because that’s what it feels like to me. But others would consider it a market, and indeed you can make real money here.
But thinking about the concept is like entering the Matrix.
The lines between reality and fantasy don’t blur, they entwine. It might seem like an insane venture, but given the cost of real property in the region, the prospect of getting in on this ‘game” in its earliest stages is incredibly tantalising.
If only the Queensland Government’s first home owners grant could be used here. $7000 could buy a person Western Australia.