Page 13: No High Court for Lindsay Fox in Portsea beach fight

Lindsay Fox won’t be taking the Darryl Kerrigan route all the way to the High Court in his battle to reclaim part of the Portsea beach.

Fox has been seeking to reclaim hundreds of square metres of public beach for private use at his Portsea compound.

Seeing Lindsay Fox taking on the role of Darryl Kerrigan in a High Court battle to reclaim the beach at Portsea looks dead in the water.

To take a quote straight from Australian cult film The Castle’s much-loved dad, the trucking magnate might have said: “Tell em they’re dreamin.’

Wouldn’t it have been grand, and oh the irony, to see him come out with lines like: “It’s not a house it’s a home.”

Lindsay Fox has always called it as he sees it in the shifting legal sands in his fight to reclaim hundreds of square metres of public beach for private use at his multimillion Portsea compound.

“We have what is known as a high-tide watermark, which is 30 feet from the high tide and the rest is our land,” Fox told Page 13.

A spokesperson for the Fox family later confirmed to Page 13 this week that there would be no appeal to the High Court after three of the state’s most senior judges threw the alleged coastline land grab out of court.

Linfox founder Lindsay Fox at his beach home at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne.

The Linfox boss had enjoyed title over the land at Point King beach down to the waters of Port Phillip Bay.

But planning changes under the Coalition Government in 2014 changed the land’s zoning from residential to “public conservation and resource”.

Fox failed in a move to have the beach rezoned as residential, giving him more control over its use, before launching what has become a long-running legal battle.

He has been arguing for almost three years that the zoning change was invalid and has no legal standing.

He believes it involved an “acquisition by subterfuge” and has sought compensation for the move.

He lost a Supreme Court court challenge in 2021 before going to the Court of Appeal.

In November, justices Karin Emerton, Kristin Walker and Michelle Quigley dismissed his case, finding he failed to make out two key grounds of appeal.

The justices also noted Fox’s delay in challenging the original 2014 rezoning decision.

“In bringing the proceeding the applicants sought to challenge the lawfulness of administrative decisions made some six years earlier that effected the amendment of the VPPs (Victorian Planning Provisions) and every planning scheme in Victoria,” the court said.

Lindsay Fox’s multimillion Portsea compound.

“The amendments affected land across Victoria. It is contrary to the public interest for decisions forming part of the process by which a planning scheme amendment is made to be challenged so many years after the amendment has come into force.

“While there may still be a dispute to quell between the applicants and the Planning Minister, in the sense that the applicants continue to feel they have been singled out and treated unfairly as a result of the Amendment Decision, that dispute could and should have been raised for resolution well before now.”

The decision is the latest in a long series of stoushes over the sprawling Portsea property.

In 2019, Fox’s company W Everton Park Pty Ltd was fined $20,000 for laying turf over a protected 4600 square metre section of the beach at the front of the $30 million estate.

Fox also upset the council by installing bollards on a stretch of the beach in 2014, while locals flew into a rage over Fox flying his helicopter onto his land in 2003.

In January this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew in on Fox’s helicopter for a five-hour barbecue with the business magnate and Premier Daniel Andrews at the billionaire’s seaside mansion.

The Castle characters Dennis Denuto, Lawrence Hammill and Darryl Kerrigan outside the High Court of Australia.

The private meeting between two of Australia’s most powerful politicians and one of the country’s wealthiest families was on a quiet Saturday afternoon after Albanese finished his official business in Victoria.

“I have private meetings all the time. And I have private meetings which are private meetings.” Albo said when asked about the weekend barbecue sojourn.

The Fox family have often been lauded for their philanthropy by state and federal politicians, such as the groundbreaking $152-million Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre.

Last year in celebration of Fox’s 85th birthday, the family donated $100 million towards the construction of new National Gallery of Victoria building.

It is the largest cultural gift ever made to an Australian art museum by a living donor.

In return, the new building will be named The Fox: NGV Contemporary after the trucking magnate.

As we have written many times before, keep on truckin’ Lindsay.