The NSW government’s plans to build 25,000 houses and a metro station at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse are in tatters after the Australian Turf Club (ATC) members voted 56-44 against the racecourse sale.
The proposal, backed by NSW Premier Chris Minns and ATC chairman Peter McGauran, was controversial. The vote over the sale has been delayed multiple times since the plan’s inception in 2023.
However, today, at a meeting at Randwick, the club voted to reject the $5 billion site sale to the NSW government with the ATC board’s plans to redevelop Warwick Farm racecourse as a replacement for Rosehill at an estimated cost of $800 million also scrapped.
Of the members, 56.1% voted against the sale, while 43.9% voted for it: “That means it’s finished, taken off the table, it will not proceed in any shape or form,” McGauran said. “I personally am disappointed.”
It comes as Chris Minns, NSW Premier, said that whilst the government was disappointed, they would now double down on ambitious proposals to fix the state’s housing crisis: “The closeness of the result makes it more difficult to take, not easier,” he said. “It feels like a golden opportunity that has slipped through our fingers.
“We should be taking more risks when it comes to housing,” Minns said. “We’ve been far too timid for far too long. “More proposals like this are needed.”
- To learn why prefab construction – including mass timber – is crucial in helping the NSW government close the housing gap, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from the 2024 NSW budget.
