Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club remain committed to exploring the building of a new racecourse at the Brickpit site at Homebush despite concerns raised about the land's practical and environmental suitability.
Racing NSW is undertaking due diligence on the site on behalf of the ATC, with chief operating officer Graeme Hinton detailing that the PRA has already spent $25,000 assessing that site during his recent appearance at the Select Committee inquiry into Rosehill.
“We have identified that there's significant benefits of Homebush as a site. It's close to public transport. It's in a major event precinct,” Hinton said.
“It's closer to the centre of Sydney than Rosehill and overcomes a lot of the shortcomings of Rosehill in terms of access to the site that we hear on a regular basis.”
“However, Homebush is still early in the stage of due diligence.”
Members of the 10-person Select Committee had recently inspected the Brickpit site to assess its suitability, and have raised questions on how a racecourse could be built on former industrial land that became a habitat for endangered wildlife, which rendered it unsuitable for development as a facility for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Hinton said the idea behind the Brickpit extended far beyond the conservation area itself.
“I will say, for those that have been to the site, you've probably viewed the site through the lens of the Brickpit footprint in itself, not the Brickpit precinct,” he said.
“There is a broader area that reaches beyond the ring road that runs around that site that is equivalent to the size of Rosehill.”
The site is currently bordered by three major roads, the Bennelong Parkway, the Marjorie Jackson Parkway and Australia Ave. Beyond that, there is parkland of Wentworth Common and the saltmarshes and mangroves bordering the Parramatta River.
Hinton said parts of both of those areas would be required for the racecourse, should it proceed.
“I think you've got to appreciate when you approach these things sometimes you need to think big. We pride ourselves on having a can-do attitude and not short-term thinking and we don't try and find problems why things can't be done,” he said.
Hinton said the Brickpit had been identified in late December or early January, a few weeks after the proposal to sell Rosehill was made public.
He and Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys had assessed several sites in the area, and having discussed with the ATC, established the Brickpit as the largest available space in that precinct.
“We look at Homebush as an opportunity for a 20-year, 50-year opportunity for the industry, not something that's easy to achieve, not something that's driven by short-term interest, but something that needs to be assessed absolutely in its completeness, and that's the job that we see ourselves needing to do,” he said.
V’landys confirmed during the hearing that it was Racing NSW board policy that the sale of Rosehill could not proceed until a replacement was found.
Racing NSW had yet to undertake discussions with the Sydney Olympic Park Trust, who currently control the Brickpit site.
Bren O’Brien
“We haven't actively engaged firsthand with them because we first want to satisfy ourselves that it can be done, that it can fit, that it can work and that's a process of surveyors, some engineering expertise and also the ecological work,” Hinton said.
The ecological aspect of the site involves the green and gold bell frog, the previously endangered species which has prevented previous development at the Brickpit.
There is also a migratory bird, coincidentally called Latham’s Snipe, which is also of concern.
During the hearing, Nationals MP Wes Fang described the process around the Brickpit site as a “debacle”, something V’landys strongly refuted.
“You can put a track there because you'd put it around the perimeter of the Brickpit. And you can co-exist. And as I said, one of the beauties of it is you can provide it as open space for the residents in a high-density area,” the Racing NSW CEO said.
“That's one of the reasons we ... and it's up to us to sell it to the community if it does go ahead, it may not go ahead and it might be a different site. It might be at Penrith. It might be at Warwick Farm. It might be somewhere completely different.
“But the point is that Racing NSW requires the replacement of Rosehill in order for this to proceed.”
Earlier on the second day of the public hearings, ATC chairman Peter McGauran said the club hadn’t formed a view on the suitability of the Brickpit and would wait until the due diligence was done by Racing NSW.
Warwick Barr
“I'm suspending judgement on the suitability of the Homebush site as a future racetrack until I have more information, particularly from the engineers to address your practical concerns,” McGauran said,
“There's other sites that we're looking at which I'm not going to say publicly because of commercial property issues. So, it really is a matter of us concluding stage 2 so we can answer your questions more fully.”
“Our objective and our negotiations with the government will be in regard to the Homebush site. And we have to wait to see their response and how we respond in kind.”
Independent MP Mark Latham, who has led the political crusade against the sale of Rosehill, raised the ecological concerns about the Homebush site as well as Horsley Park in NSW parliament on Thursday, with Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe.
“What action is the Minister taking in her portfolio responsibilities to make submissions to the unsolicited proposal process to protect the endangered bell frog at the brick pit and to reject the ATC plan to destroy protected woodlands at the Western Sydney Parklands to make way for its Horsley Park training centre?,” Latham asked.
“I thank him (Latham) for his care of the bell frog and for being interested in this endangered animal which, as we know, was specially protected when Homebush was built for the Olympics and we were dealing with all of that,” Sharpe said.
Bren O’Brien
“If the unsolicited proposal progresses—we know the processes are being worked through—my departments will do what they do with all development applications [DA], or any changes that may or may not occur. If there is a DA in front of them, we work through those and provide advice in due course.”
Sharpe was then asked a follow-up question by opposition planning minister Scott Farlow, who chairs the Select Committee, about the fate of Latham’s Snipe.
“I am sure there are others who would not care about Latham's Snipe, but I care for all endangered species,” she said.
