Australia’s first private racing club – charging $24,000 a year in membership fees – is under construction outside Newcastle, where a hotel, members’ lounge and 64 luxury villas will be on offer alongside a 5.4-kilometre track on the site of the former Rhondda Colliery.

The development-approved $250 million Black Rock Motor Resort at Lake Macquarie, which will feature a pit lane, garaging facilities and trackside cafe when it opens next year, is both a property play and a motoring-based hospitality and tourism business.