Field of dreams: Racing Victoria has time to unlock Oaklands potential
A changed Melbourne racing infrastructure landscape, since RV paid $25.3m in late 2022 for the green wedge-zoned land, has afforded the regulator options.
The 400-hectare site, close to Melbourne Airport, was bought to potentially build an equine super-centre, including racecourse and training complex.
The future of Sandown Racecourse was uncertain at the time, while a second track at Caulfield was yet to be developed.
The Valley redevelopment is also set to start this year.
The green field, bound by Oaklands, Craigieburn and Mickleham roads, is three times the size of Flemington Racecourse precinct and six-times Rosehill Gardens in Sydney.
Residential estates and developments have crept closer to RV's prized parcel of land, which is also inside a proposed State Government outer ring road project.
RV chief executive Aaron Morrison has sought internal and external expert advice on the North-West Land 'looking for the best option'.
'What is the best and greatest use of that site?' Morrison said.
'Unless there is a very specific reason why that patch of grass would make the best training facility, it may be we're better off holding and looking at our other options.'
Morrison confirmed a new racecourse development at Oaklands was 'unlikely'.
'We're constantly looking at what's the right footprint,' Morrison said.
'Operating footprint from a racing perspective, a training perspective … we now look at it and go 'we don't need another racetrack really?'
'It's unlikely we're going to develop anything for racing … perhaps we may need it for training.
'The most obvious consideration is training and opportunity to build a whole equine ecosystem around it (vet centre, equine industry education).
'Right now, we don't have an absolute pressing need for it.'
Major centres Southside (Cranbourne and Pakenham), Flemington, Ballarat and Mornington currently host the majority of Melbourne racing stables.
Flemington, the only training centre left in the heart of Melbourne following the closure of the Caulfield complex, has lease agreements in place to 2030.
'We're accommodating training across the state pretty well and we're starting to really look at (Oaklands) and say, well, is it the best use of industry funds to spend $100m-$120m developing a greenfield site?' Morrison said.
'Do we need it (new training centre) at the moment? Not, not at the moment.
'While Flemington retains training on their site, we don't have a burning need to go and redevelop (Oaklands) just yet.'
• Brad Waters' best bets, race-by-race analysis for Flemington on Saturday
Morrison said investment in existing training centres could be more beneficial to the industry.
'The good news is that asset has got a lot of value,' Morrison said.
'Certainly worth far more than when we bought it and with any reasonable rezoning it is worth quite a lot more.
'For now … might be its best value to the industry, sitting on an asset worth quite a lot of value.
'We bought it for $25m, right now, undeveloped, it'd be at least double that.
'Maybe more and then depending on rezoning, the potential is a lot more.'
'We were the common enemy'
In September last year, @RacingVictoria CEO Aaron Morrison walked into a furnace of agitated stakeholders in the boardroom at Epsom Rd. Today, he reveals to @gilbertgardiner how the industry got back on track. ðŸ'‡ https://t.co/o5Zuvn5snF pic.twitter.com/zkIl9nuNsI
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 30, 2025
A future fund nest egg of about $65m and valuable media assets underpin 'the strength of the Victorian industry'.
'We're not here to make profit for profit's sake,' Morrison said.
'Everything we do is to be reinvested back into supporting, sustaining and growing the racing industry and all the participants involved in it.'
'It's great to have a permanent horse presence in the CBD,' Morrison said.
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ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Do class actions really deliver justice?
Sam Hawley: On average, there's a class action launched in Australia every week. But do they really help bring justice to groups of Australians exposed to wrongdoing? Today, Anne Connolly on her Four Corners investigation into the class action traps leaving victims short-changed and lawyers richer. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Anne, in Australia, class actions have become pretty common, haven't they? It's a really important way to address injustices in this country. Anne Connolly: Well, yes, that's what class actions are designed to do. And I mean, when there were some really major catastrophes, such as the Victorian bushfires, the Queensland floods, class actions were taken to get some money back for those people. News report: Property owners around Horsham in Victoria have banded together to bring the first class action arising from the Black Saturday bushfires. Anne Connolly: Same with the pelvic mesh issue against Johnson & Johnson. News report: The federal court found Johnson & Johnson had been negligent and driven by commercial interest and ordered them to pay compensation. Anne Connolly: There's many, and they're very varied. Sam Hawley: Yeah, and you found during your Four Corners investigation, this is a billion dollar industry, but it's not always in favour of the individual victims. So to explain this further, why don't we look at a recent case, Anne, a legal fight between more than 8,000 Australian taxi drivers and Uber. Anne Connolly: Well, I mean, I think most people remember when Uber entered the market, obviously the taxi industry was absolutely decimated. They just couldn't compete any longer. One of the taxi owners I spoke to is a man called Stephen Lacaze. He said he had a licence in Queensland, which was at the time valued at about half a million dollars. It went to being virtually worthless once Uber came along. Stephen Lacaze, taxi owner: Oh, it was devastating. People virtually went into shock. Anne Connolly: So when Maurice Blackburn, which is one of the biggest class action firms in Australia, came along and proposed a class action, he was very keen to sign up. Stephen Lacaze, taxi owner: We were friendless. And here comes Maurice Blackburn with their Bradman-like batting averages, and their 'we fight for fair' banner, and we're there with bells on. Sam Hawley: OK, so Stephen was keen to fight this. Maurice Blackburn lawyers take it on, and they get a third party, a litigation funder, to pay the costs. Just explain how that works. Anne Connolly: Yeah, so what happens is Maurice Blackburn doesn't want to go this alone. So what they do is they engage somebody called a litigation funder. And litigation funders, they pay the lawyers' fees, they support them, and if they lose, they pay all of the costs, so there is some risk. But in return for taking that risk, they want a percentage of any payout that they win. So in this case, with Maurice Blackburn, they had a partnership with an offshore firm called Harbour Litigation Funding, which is actually registered in the Cayman Islands. It's a tax haven, and there's quite a few litigation funders in tax havens. Under this deal, they said, we want 30% of the proceeds. And Stephen signed up for that, as did most of the taxi drivers. Stephen said he did that because he thought they were going to get a payout worth billions because that's how much they'd lost. Sam Hawley: So in this case, Maurice Blackburn, the law firm, ends up settling this class action. So just tell me what happens then. Are the taxi drivers elated about this? Anne Connolly: Well, the night before the trial was due to start in March last year, Maurice Blackburn brokered a deal with Uber. That would be that Uber would pay $272 million in compensation. Now, once Harbour took its commission, that came out at $81.5 million. 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Anne Connolly: Well, there's some people who are concerned about that. I mean, the lawyers and the funders will say, without us, people would get nothing. The problem is that what's happening now is most people think a class action begins with a group of victims, but that's not really the case anymore. Now everything has changed because litigation funders have now entered the Australian market. So what happens is, it's the law firms and the litigation funders getting together and seeing, what are these issues that we could launch a class action on so that they can make money and then they can sign up the group members? So the concern is, are they really seeking justice for people or are they actually just finding a business opportunity so that they can make as much profit as they possibly can? Sam Hawley: Anne, let's now look at another case where the victims are left with, in comparison, petty change. Just tell me about Minnie McDonald. Anne Connolly: So Minnie McDonald is a woman in her 90s. She lives in Alice Springs and she was approached by Shine lawyers to become what's called the lead plaintiff in a class action in the Northern Territory for stolen wages of Indigenous workers who worked on cattle stations and missions for little or no money. Minnie McDonald, lead plaintiff: No shoes, get up in the morning, go to work. Come back afternoon, cold. Anne Connolly: So this case relates to the treatment of people like Minnie who, along with a lot of other... ..thousands of other Aboriginal men, women and children worked for little or no pay between the 1930s and the 1970s. Look, I just think, you know, one of the things I want to say about this is if ever there was a class action needed, perhaps it was in this particular case. I mean, there's questions about why the governments didn't just actually pay people what they deserved instead of being forced to court and forced to pay out compensation. But in any case, what Shine says and what the litigation funder says is we were doing our very best to get right a particular historical injustice. Sam Hawley: So the law firm Shine takes on this class action along with the litigation funder, Litigation Lending Services, and Minnie becomes the lead plaintiff. But the thing is, Anne, we know with legal cases, there's a lot of paperwork and Minnie had to sign a lot of that and she can't read or write. Anne Connolly: That's right, she can't read or write. So Minnie had her granddaughter Elizabeth to help her. However, Elizabeth does say, you know, it was complicated. It was difficult to understand at times. So Minnie did sign one document which said that Shine's costs had increased by $10 million and she signed off on that. I asked her about it and I asked her granddaughter if they remembered it. They didn't. I asked Shine, did they check that Minnie had the capacity to understand the complex legal and financial issues around class actions? They said being unable to read or write is no indication of intelligence and that they had an Indigenous barrister who helped to cross these cultural barriers and explain the process to them. Sam Hawley: So tell me what ended up happening with the case. Anne Connolly: So there were two class actions in WA and the NT and they both settled. So they didn't go to court. In Western Australia, there was a settlement for $180 million. In the Northern Territory, it was $200 million. Which sounds, you know, really positive. But what has to come out of that are the legal costs and the commission for the litigation funder. So they're not going to end up with that much. They'll end up with at least $10,000 and some will end up with more than that. Minnie McDonald, lead plaintiff: So somebody might... get a car and just take me for a picnic somewhere, you know, have a feed. But... I didn't get enough. Anne Connolly: You didn't get enough to buy a car? Minnie McDonald, lead plaintiff: Yeah, yeah. Nothing. Not enough. Anne Connolly: On the other hand, what's happened is Shine Lawyers is going to get about $30 million for its work. And the funder, Litigation Lending Services, they will take a commission of about $57 million. Sam Hawley: And you've had a really good look, haven't you, also, at the amount the law firm Shine was actually charging. Anne Connolly: Well, that's very interesting because Shine was roundly criticised in both WA and Northern Territory courts by the judges there. In one instance, Shine was charging for law clerks, charging them out at $375 an hour, even though many of them were unqualified uni students. They hired at least a dozen barristers that cost almost $3.5 million. 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Daily Telegraph
5 hours ago
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Stuard Broad hits back at David Warner as Ashes war of words erupts, cricket 2025 news
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6 hours ago
- The Australian
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