Australia triumphed in their first game against Ireland, sending fans into paroxysms of delight.

Whatever goes up, must come down. So, who is liable for space debris when it does finally come crashing back to Earth?

It's assessed on a case-by-case basis but that could come with a big price tag, space lawyer and professor Melissa de Zwart told 9news.com.au.

Although it's pretty rare, space junk has been found scattered across Australia, from rocket fragments linked to SpaceX discovered in the NSW Snowy Mountains, to a mystery barnacle-encrusted cylinder found in WA only a couple of days ago.

READ MORE: Questions swirl as mystery 'space debris' removed from Aussie beach

So, what happens when it falls?

Orbital debris, or "space junk" is monitored by multiple agencies across the globe, including LeoLabs here in Australia.

Who pays for the clean-up depends on where it lands, if there is damage, and crucially, what the debris is, De Zwart said.

"If there is damage on the surface of the Earth, international law says that, the liability is to what they call the launching state," she said.

"If a rocket is launched by India, India will be liable. If it's like a SpaceX rocket, it will be the liability of the United States.

"The liability under international law attaches to states, not to companies."

These laws fall under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and 1972 Liability Convention which were adopted by the United Nations.

For example, the Australian Space Agency has taken over the ongoing assessment and identification of the object in WA.

They have determined the object is most likely a solid rocket motor casing and will now engage with its global counterparts around next steps, including where it originally came from and whether the debris would need to be returned.

"It's a discussion that would be had between the space agency that's representing the Australian government with the government of the launching state," De Zwart said.

"It's hard to tell from the pictures to what sort of state it is in, but there would be a discussion about whether they want that returned to them.

"They might say, it's fine and it can go into a museum, or it can be placed somewhere where it's safe.

"It's really case by case."

READ MORE: Harvard professor believes he's found fragments of alien technology

Space rubbish: The cluttered final frontier 

The Earth's orbit is crowded with many human-made objects, including working and defunct satellites, along with debris from missiles or rockets.

NASA believes there are about 100 million pieces of debris orbiting the earth that are smaller than a millimetre and about 23,000 pieces larger than a softball.

More than 27,000 pieces of debris are currently being tracked by US sensors.

Meanwhile, about 6,000 active satellites, some larger than a shoe-box are being tracked by LeoLabs.

READ MORE: NASA's hidden graveyard lurking at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean

What does this mean for the future?

With a growing number of organisations interacting and exploring space, there's a worry more debris could come hurtling back down in the coming years.

But De Zwart said as we evolve so do the rules and regulations of space.

"We are getting better at actually putting in place what is going to happen with that stuff when it gets (into space)," she said.

"If we think about SpaceX and other companies now, they are using reusable rockets, as you can imagine, that is a massive step forward in terms of not creating this sort of hazard.

"Previously, traditional rocket stages will fall off as the rocket goes up towards orbit, and you had lots of rocket bodies falling into the ocean.

READ MORE: Defence tactics to stop hazardous asteroids hitting Earth

"Now, if those rocket bodies can actually be returned to the launch place and reused, that is removing a lot of the risk of space debris. Also there are space debris mitigation guidelines, which have been put in place by the United Nations.

"Increasingly they are being used by launches in their design of things."

De Zwart said many companies are also developing technology to remove space debris.

"If we want to keep using space, and using it more and more, we are going to have to treat space as an environment and environmental issue in the same way that we treat, you know, precious places here on Earth."

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It's a question the approximate third of Australian households who live in a rental house would love an answer to: when are rents going to stop skyrocketing?

One leading property research group says it could happen as soon as next year, but two experts 9news.com.au spoke to were far less certain.

Here's what you need to know about when Australian rental prices will slow down, and whether governments are doing enough to make it happen.

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When is the growth in rent prices going to slow down?

According to new research from property data firm CoreLogic, 2024 is expected to be the welcome year in which Australia's rental growth is expected to slow.

It points to a number of factors, including tenants turning back to sharehousing as rent becomes less affordable, thereby increasing supply; easing construction costs; and government-built and build-to-rent projects coming into the market.

CoreLogic also looked at whether the forecasted plateauing of interest rates could signal a pause in rental price growth.

"As inflation moves past its peak, the RBA is getting closer to the end of rate hikes," head of research Eliza Owen wrote.

"This could be good news for renters, because growth in rent values usually tracks roughly with movements in the cash rate."

READ MORE: Time it takes for average Aussie to save for a home revealed

Not everyone is quite so sure though.

"I wouldn't like to be so definitive," Professor Alan Morris from the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology Sydney told 9news.com.au.

"There's a reasonable possibility that they will level because the increases have been so tremendous that there's a point where people just can't afford those rents…

"But the lack of regulation means that there is a possibility that rents could continue to increase, we just don't know."

READ MORE: What impact will RBA changes have on everyday Aussies?

Dr Chris Martin, senior research fellow at UNSW's City Futures Research Centre, is similarly cautious.

"I don't think there's a single relationship between interest rates and rents," he told 9news.com.au.

"I don't think we can conclude that the pressure being felt by rental households is expected to let up automatically."

He added that supply issues could, in fact, see rents continue to increase for years to come.

"The rate of completion of properties is currently down now on where it's been in the last few years, certainly before COVID," he said.

"On that reasoning, we still might have a problem on the supply side, and pressure for rents to go up in the years ahead."

READ MORE: Smaller tax returns come as a 'slap in the face' to struggling Aussies

Are governments doing enough to address the issue?

Both Morris and Martin called on governments across Australia, both state and federal, to do more to address the current housing crisis.

"If you're on a government benefit, for example, or disability support pension or, even worse, JobSeeker, to compete in the market with people who are employed is incredibly difficult," Morris said.

"I think there's a lot of invisible suffering out there which we're not aware of."

In particular, they were both highly critical of the federal government's signature housing policy – the Housing Australia Future Fund, currently stuck in the Senate awaiting crossbench or opposition support.

The issue with the policy is that it's not guaranteed funding, instead an investment portfolio from which the earnings will be directed into building social and affordable housing.

READ MORE: Power prices to spike again over summer as El Nino hits

"We haven't had funding to grow the stock of social housing in line with community need," Martin says.

"That absolutely requires the federal government to be involved because it's really the fiscal powerhouse in Australia.

"Has it done enough with its Housing Australia Future Fund? Absolutely not. It's such a contrived and convoluted way of addressing that investment need…

"It's not good enough. And the scale of it's not good enough.

"It's a contrivance and the government hit on a better, simpler and more direct way of doing it when it announced that social housing accelerator at the end of June."

READ MORE: How powerful is Australia's passport, and how long does it take to get one?

Morris agreed the $2 billion policy announced last month was a better approach.

"Hopefully that will start making a difference," he said.

"I think to rely on the Housing Future Fund to resolve that problem, that's not going to happen.

"The revenue generated will be minimal. Housing is a very expensive commodity and if you want to be serious about resolving the housing crisis and government playing a major role, you've got to dig deep and actually support that with a sizeable amount of tax dollars.

"There was a surplus of $19 billion. I mean, surely a portion of that we want to try to start really addressing the housing crisis in a big way."

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