Speculation is growing that Cross River Rail boss Graeme Newton will quit for another plum rail job

Is the boss of Brisbane’s troubled $5.4bn Cross River Rail project about to bail out?

Is the boss of Brisbane’s troubled $5.4bn Cross River Rail project about to bail out?

We hear Graeme Newton is poised to tackle another plum job in the sector as the new head of the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

He would take over from Richard Wankmuller, who is about to wrap up a three-year stint at the helm of the ARTC, which is building a 1700km rail line linking Brisbane to Melbourne.

Newton was appointed to lead the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority in 2017 and did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Graeme Newton

One of his spin doctors declined to confirm or deny the speculation. “Who the ARTC appoints as CEO is a matter for the ARTC,’’ he told City Beat.

Similarly, an ARTC spokeswoman would not weigh in on the growing rumour. She merely confirmed that the board is in the “final stages’’ of finding Wankmuller’s successor.

The 10.2km Cross River Rail network connecting Dutton Park to Bowen Hills won’t be completed until 2024 so the timing of Newton’s possible exit has raised more than a few eyebrows. There’s a reason you don’t normally change horses midstream!

Newton took on his current work after spending nearly four years as the first CEO of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority following the 2011 floods.

Before that he was a senior bureaucrat in the state, overseeing infrastructure projects in various roles, including as a director-general and co-ordinator-general.

Wankmuller, who took home a $1.5m compo package last year, announced his decision to step down from the ARTC in February, setting off a global search for a candidate.

He didn’t specify a departure date back then but it emerged this week that he’ll be out the door on July 30.

One of his colleagues, Rebecca Pickering, has been tapped to fill in as interim CEO.

THIRD TIME UNLUCKY

They say it’s usually third time lucky but not in this case.

Wealthy Brisbane property player Peter Huang has just pulled the plug on a pending $55m deal to offload his sprawling resort in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Incredibly, it was the third failed contract for the Kooralbyn Valley property since Huang put it back on the market early last year, citing pressure from the bushfires and pandemic.

Huang, who runs the Yong Group real estate business and owns the Brisbane River Golf Club, said that problems with overseas financing for some local buyers had torpedoed the agreement struck last month.

Kooralbyn Valley Resort.

He’s now offering a vendor finance package to entice prospective buyers for the 327ha property, which he believes could be worth $500m to $2bn under a masterplanned redevelopment scheme.

The resort, complete with a 102-room motel, restaurant, pool and equestrian grounds, had been closed for eight years when Huang acquired it from receivers for just $7m in 2013.

It had previously been owned by now-defunct financier MFS, which crashed during the GFC, and was originally developed by two Sydney businessmen in the 1970s.

Late billionaire Kerry Packer used the place as a hideaway to play polo and a 30-room lodge on the site is now named after him.

Huang reopened the resort in 2016 after extensive renovations. He put it up for sale two years later, asking $68m, but failed to find any takers.