A pair of would-be developers with links to an international gold mining company have lost their legal fight for $5.5 million in compensation after a rural acreage they were land-banking near Coffs Harbour was swallowed up by the Pacific Highway upgrade.
Raymond and Wendy Dibb bought 2.7 hectares at Korora for $118,000 in 1988 and sat on it, waiting for the day they could make their retirement fortune by subdividing the land and selling it off.
Work under way on the Pacific Highway bypass at Korora, near Coffs Harbour, in February.Credit: Janie Barrett
But the couple never had the chance. Transport for NSW compulsorily acquired the block in 2021 for the Pacific Highway bypass of Coffs Harbour, and valued the land at $1.062 million, a far cry from the $5.5 million the Brisbane couple believed the land was worth.
A three-year legal battle over the land ended in the NSW Court of Appeal on June 28, with the Dibbs receiving $1.359 million in compensation, despite the couple arguing they deserved more.
“This was a pretty significant financial transaction that’s really gone bad for us,” Raymond Dibb said. “And it’s got nothing to do with our investment choices.
“We’re talking about landowners just minding their own business, and someone comes knocking on your door, saying, ‘We’re going to take your land.’ ”
Counting the cost
- Raymond and Wendy Dibb buy land at Korora for $118,000 in 1988
- Transport for NSW offers them $1.062 million in 2021
- The Dibbs launch legal proceedings, seeking $5.5 million
- The Land and Environment Court awards them $1.417 million
- The NSW Court of Appeal reduces this to $1.359 million and orders the Dibbs to pay costs
He said most landowners settled “with a gun to their head” for a lower valuation rather than go to court to fight for a better deal, and an independent body should conduct compulsory acquisitions, not the government.
The couple first visited Coffs Harbour in 1976, and by the 1980s they could see the city was on the precipice of expansion, prompting them to buy on the outskirts. They planned to subdivide their block into 26 lots once the land was rezoned as residential, live on one block and drip-feed two or three others on to the market each year to fund their retirement.
They were going to finance the development using a line of credit from their eldest son, who founded a gold mining company with operations in Africa, Dibb told the Land and Environment Court during a 10-day hearing last year.
By 1996 it looked like their investment was going to pay off, with Coffs Harbour City Council earmarking Korora for possible residential development, saying the area once covered in banana plantations was ideal for “rural living”.
The location of the Dibbs’ land on Bruxner Park Road.
But just as the council was about to rezone the Dibbs’ land in 2001, the government unveiled its plans for the highway bypass and urged the council to refrain from doing so until the route was determined.
Dibb told this masthead that curtailed his ability to do anything with the land for the next 20 years and depleted all the land values in the area, to the benefit of Transport for NSW.
The $2.2 billion highway is now being built over the top of the block, which will be the site of a major intersection when the bypass opens to traffic in late 2026.
In the Land and Environment Court, Justice Nicola Pain found the council would have rezoned the land as low-density residential if not for the highway plans. But she said the Dibbs had not accounted for the cost of developing the land, nor the risk to the project arising from a watercourse that ran over the block.
‘The number of people I’ve spoken to … [whose land was affected by the bypass], you would break down and cry if you heard their stories.’
Raymond Dibb
She increased their compensation to $1.42 million after finding the land could have produced seven residential lots with less risk and cost, and that the couple were also entitled to money to cover fees and stamp duty on a replacement block for their land bank, which the couple said they would have to buy to delay paying capital gains tax.
The Dibbs appealed to the NSW Court of Appeal, where they appeared without legal representation and sought greater compensation.
Transport for NSW argued, however, that the couple should not have received any money for stamp duty and Justices Kristina Stern, Anthony Payne and Jeremy Kirk agreed, stripping that from the award and refusing to revalue the block of land. They also ordered the couple to pay the government’s costs of the two-day appeal.
Dibb said he was considering seeking leave to appeal against the decision to the High Court, and the couple’s retirement plans had been ruined by the actions of Transport for NSW, which had originally offered them just $470,000 for their block in 2019.
“I can’t let this go because we’re talking millions of dollars,” he said. “We could have resolved this much earlier if it was only about the self-interest aspect, but the number of people I’ve spoken to over the years [whose land was affected by the bypass], you would break down and cry if you heard their stories.”
The government is reviewing the laws that govern compulsory acquisitions after a 2022 parliamentary inquiry raised concerns about the process.
Transport for NSW said it was committed to working with landowners affected by major projects and most acquisitions were completed by agreement, based on an independent valuation. It said the Valuer-General, who is independent of the department, is engaged for compulsory acquisitions.
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