The inside story of how Rosehill got on Sydney’s housing map

The Australian Turf Club told the Minns government that Rosehill Racecourse was one of its premier racetracks and insisted there was “definitely no plan” to relinquish it for housing only a fortnight before proposing to do exactly that.

New documents reveal a remarkably short turnaround between an October 25 meeting in which ATC officials told the NSW Planning Department it had no interest in shifting the historic course, and the racing body’s proposal on November 8 to develop the track into a massive “mini-city” for 25,000 new homes.

NSW Premier Chris Minns with ATC chair Peter McGauran announcing the plan to develop Rosehill Racecourse into a “mini-city” for 25,000 new homes in December last year.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The documents – obtained by this masthead via a parliamentary order – suggest the ATC was initially far more interested in a potential redevelopment of Canterbury Racecourse, a proposal that had already been the subject of extensive scoping work by the planning department and the local council.

Despite the Minns government blocking the release of a swathe of documents relating to its dealings with the ATC in the lead-up to announcing a potential redevelopment of the racecourse late last year, a tranche of files shows how rapidly the plan developed and raises new questions about its adherence to unsolicited proposal rules.

Details of the October 25 meeting reveal the ATC had engaged consultants to prepare plans for a redevelopment of Rosehill which would have seen about 3000 homes built surrounding the track.

However, it informed the department that Rosehill, along with Randwick Racecourse, remained one of its “premier race venues” and “there is definitely no plan to relocate”. A presentation provided to government officials, including NSW Planning Secretary Kiersten Fishburn, shows that while it was open to development surrounding Rosehill, the ATC insisted “racing would continue” at the site.

The same presentation, however, presents two options for Canterbury Racecourse. One, which would have seen the course preserved, would have created about 900 new homes by moving an existing car park. But the second option raised the prospect of relocating the course and creating space for 4000 new homes and green space along the Cooks River in Sydney’s inner west.

Despite that, the ATC’s position appears to have changed quickly after a meeting with NSW Premier Chris Minns on October 30.

Minns has previously said that meeting, with ATC head of memberships and corporate affairs Steve McMahon, was the first time he had heard of the proposal to move the course. The ATC said it had approached the government with the plan.

A spokesperson for Minns referred this masthead to the premier’s budget estimates appearance in February in which he said it was routine for the government to be approached with proposals such as the Rosehill development.

But the opposition’s housing spokesperson Scott Farlow said the documents raised questions about the timeline behind the proposal and who raised the idea to redevelop Rosehill.

“From September last year it was evident that the ATC were looking at options for development in addition to racing at both Rosehill and Canterbury and if any site were going to be fully redeveloped for housing, it was Canterbury that was on the table from the ATC’s perspective,” he said.

Under the state’s unsolicited proposals guidelines, the government must be approached with an idea which it has “not requested” for it to qualify.

“Under the unsolicited proposal process it is imperative that the government remains impartial in the process, but instead the premier called the proposal a ‘once in a generation opportunity’ and has been its biggest proponent ever since,” Farlow said.

But the guidelines also allow the government to engage with a stakeholder before a formal proposal is lodged. The Minns government has insisted it followed due processes.

In a statement, the ATC said the “context” of its comments at the October 25 meeting was “with regard to Camellia, which as you know has been a long-term process over almost 10 years for the possibility to develop land around the edges of the racecourse”.

It said it would not have been “the appropriate forum and would not have been correct protocol to raise any other potential plans”.

In any case, the proposal moved at a rapid pace after the meeting with Minns. The documents show three days later, on November 3, McMahon was discussing a “potential metro box” in “Camelia/Rosehill” with an assistant secretary of the NSW Cabinet Office. On the same day, the government was asking Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan for his thoughts on the ATC’s proposal.

By November 8, the ATC had formally lodged its proposal with the government. Emails between the NSW Cabinet Office show that the proposal had already been given a code name – Project Wattle – before the meeting had taken place. By the 15th of that month, the government had sent the ATC a memorandum of understanding over the deal, and on the 17th the government held a meeting with Racing NSW and its chair, Peter V’Landys, to discuss the deal.

If approved, the proposal will see Rosehill racecourse make way for 25,000 new homes at the same time as the government investigates a new Metro station in the suburb. The ATC has said Warwick Farm racecourse would be redeveloped as a major racing venue while a new horse training “centre of excellence” would be developed at Horsley Park.

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