Lindsay Fox: Billionaire’s bid to add more beach to Portsea mansion
Billionaire Lindsay Fox wants to take more of the beach in front of his $30m clifftop mansion. Locals in the luxury haven aren’t happy.
South East
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An apparent land grab by billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox is being investigated by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
The council decided on Tuesday to review a bid by Fox to claim more of the beach at Point King, Portsea.
The review could cost up to $10,000 and would also examine pending Supreme Court action brought by Fox to allow him to develop part of the beach he successfully claimed as his own in 2013.
In June Fox again applied to the Victorian land titles office to realign his property boundary with the high water mark – a move which would give him up to 74m more of the beach.
A Fox spokesman said shifting sand had seen Point King beach grow by up to 200m since the boundary was last realigned in 2013.
“Mr Fox has always had the high water mark title at Portsea,” he said.
“The current application before the titles office merely seeks to correct the land description to accord with a recent survey.”
The council has been trying to determine if it has any interest in the matter since July.
Cr Hugh Fraser said the review aimed to “find out what is happening on the Point King beach so that council can properly deal with it.”
The decision sets up yet another stoush with Fox 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 sqm section of the beach at the front of his $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.
The latest apparent land grab has again upset locals and conservationists who are worried that it would limit access to the beach and threaten the “delicate and dynamic” ecosystem.
Nepean Conservation Group president Dr Ursula De Jong said Victoria’s beaches were for everyone and public interest should outweigh the right to private ownership.
“We need to protect out coastline and we can’t properly do that if parts of it fall into private hands,’ Dr De Jong said.
Mr Fox assured locals that his latest move would not stop them from enjoying the beach
“The beach has remained accessible to the public via a longstanding public easement,” the spokesman said.
“Mr Fox fully supports public access across the beach under the conditions of the easement.”
However, public land management expert David Gabriel-Jones said the common law concept – doctrine of accretion – being used by Fox to claim more land was “ancient” and should not be applied in modern decisions.
“This is 300 year old law that has no input from any Australian government,” Mr Gabriel-Jones said.
He said new legislation should be created to supersede the doctrine.
