CLARA fast rail: Farmer offered three times land’s value for ambitious project

A North East Victorian farmer who negotiated to sell his property for three times its value to build a fast rail line hasn’t seen a cent.

Philip Deane (right) and his son Wes at their Wahring farm. Picture: Zoe Phillips

A Victorian farmer was offered three times his property’s value to sell his land for a fast rail line through the centre of the state – but never saw a cent from the ambitious project.

Philip Deane was among the landowners who dealt with the Consolidated Land and Rail Australia consortium, in its bid to shore up land to build a high speed rail line that would join Shepparton to Melbourne in 30 minutes.

But in the five years since signing the now-expired options to sell, Mr Deane and his family have heard little from proponents of the CLARA plan, after tossing up what was an agonising decision on whether or not to sell the 135 year-old family farm at Wahring, outside Nagambie.

“It was a lot of stress, we weren’t all really on the same page on it,” Mr Deane admits.

“It felt too good to be true.”

The CLARA plan – headed by chief executive Nick Cleary – proposes to build a northern Victoria fast-rail line incorporating two new satellite cities, as stage one of an eventual Melbourne to Sydney line.

The project launched in July 2016, and was awarded $8 million in federal funding for a feasibility study in 2018; that study was completed in 2019 but has not been released, while councils and business groups in the Shepparton region have not heard from the consortium since.

Mr Cleary began approaching landholders in the region, including Mr Deane, in late 2015.

Correspondence seen by The Weekly Times show Mr Cleary’s company Infrastructure Corporation Australia initially offered Mr Deane $31.5 million for 1327 hectares of land.

ASIC documents show Mr Cleary is the sole director of ICA, which has $100 in share capital. 

The offer was revised down as the Deanes wanted to keep sentimental parts of their farm, but prepared to take a chance on the remaining properties by signing an option to sell in 2016.

“They wouldn’t tell us what purpose the land was for initially,” Mr Deane said.

“I thought it was brilliant once we found out later on.”

The option was extended once in 2017 – netting the Deanes some interest payments – but then lapsed altogether, with little contact since.

They did come knocking once more, Mr Deane recalls, but the family was already twice shy: “We just said, ‘no thanks, we’ve had enough of this’.”

Mr Cleary did not respond to calls from The Weekly Times on Monday.

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