By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
FORMER school sites figure prominently on a sales list of government land around the region.
The list was published for the first time on a Department of Treasury and Finance website in the interests of “transparency”, according to Victorian assistant teasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips.
The list includes the status of ready-for-sale sites across Victoria as well as information on recently-completed land sales and properties being prepared for future sale.
The future sale list includes Lethbridge Primary School and a third parcel of land at a former Western Heights Secondary College Barton campus site in Bell Park.
Norlane High School is on the market after being passed in at auction.
The 6.3-hectare site is advertised as “the ultimate development site”, zoned residential one over three titles, with a possible 83-lot subdivision.
Recent sales included Anglesea Primary School selling for $3 million and the first two Barton campus parcels, realising $8.55 million.
Two former Department of Environment and Primary Industry depots are also on the sale block, one at South Geelong and the other at Camperdown.
Breakwater’s Haworth Crt horse stables and seven residential lots in Rollins Rd, Bell Post Hill on land left over from the ring road reserve are also for private sale.
Mr Rich-Phillips said the website ensured all Victorians had access to the status of Sate Government land sales.
“Proceeds of the Government’s highly-successful land sales program are reinvested back into important new infrastructure such as schools, roads, public transport and hospitals,” he said.
“The subsequent redevelopment of sites by the new owners has wide-reaching benefits for communities.
“It’s important that surplus sites that have sat dormant on the Government’s books for many years are going back to the market to be turned into new developments in which people live or work.
“This also creates investment and jobs as they are developed.”
