A Century-Old Riddle: The Challenge of Selling “Unsaleable” Land
In the complex tapestry of Melbourne’s property market, few areas present a more tangled and seemingly hopeless case than the Solomon Heights Estate in Sunshine North. Described in a recent feature by The Age as Melbourne’s “worst case of urban blight” and a “zombie subdivision,” it is a landscape frozen in time—a testament to a century of planning failure, legal conflict, and environmental paralysis. The land exists as a grid of paper streets on a 1920s plan, yet on the ground, it is a void of infrastructure, lacking roads, water, or sewerage. For decades, its hundreds of small, privately owned lots have been considered virtually worthless, stranded assets in a city experiencing a chronic housing crisis.
Against this bleak backdrop, a remarkable series of transactions occurred between 2023 and 2024. The deceased estate of Judith A Rickard, a long-term owner who had herself considered her holdings unsaleable, successfully sold and settled four contiguous blocks on Penna Avenue. This event presents a profound paradox. How could land so fundamentally flawed—so completely lacking the basic services that define urban property—find willing buyers and command significant prices? This report will argue that these sales are not an anomaly but a critical market signal. They signify the dawn of a new, highly speculative chapter in the subdivision’s history, where the very intractability that renders the land unusable has paradoxically created a new form of value for a niche class of high-risk investor.
The term “zombie subdivision” is not mere journalistic hyperbole; it is an academic concept describing once-promising projects that have become stalled and distressed, often lacking services and trapped in a state of arrested development. Solomon Heights is a quintessential example, a problem so protracted that its resolution has been stymied at every turn. For the executors of the Rickard estate, the successful liquidation of these long-held liabilities into tangible assets represents a significant feat of fiduciary duty. It challenges the static perception of the land’s worth and introduces the dynamic of speculative capital as a powerful new variable in the Solomon Heights equation. This analysis will deconstruct the anatomy of this zombie subdivision, explore the legal and environmental quagmire that defines it, and use the Penna Avenue sales as a case study to illuminate the powerful economic forces now at play in this forgotten corner of Melbourne.
The Anatomy of a Zombie Subdivision: Deconstructing Solomon Heights
A Subdivision Frozen in Time
The origins of the Solomon Heights impasse lie in the speculative fervour of the 1920s. The land was carved up in 1926 under Plan of Subdivision LP 11601, creating a grid of what were intended to be residential lots. However, the subdivision model was fundamentally flawed from its inception. In an era before modern planning regulations mandated that developers provide essential infrastructure, the responsibility for building roads and connecting services fell to the new, disparate landowners. With ownership fragmented across hundreds of individuals, this coordinated effort never materialized, leaving the subdivision stillborn.
The situation was further complicated when the area was rezoned from residential to Industrial 3 in the 1940s or 1950s. This change failed to catalyse development. The small lot sizes, designed for houses, were unsuitable for large-scale industrial use, and the estate’s poor access, hemmed in by a railway line, made it unattractive for industry. For nearly a century, the land has remained in this state of limbo—a paper subdivision with no physical reality, a historical artefact of flawed planning and market failure.
The Modern Blight: A Landscape of Neglect
Today, Solomon Heights is a 32.8-hectare testament to this historical failure. It is an infrastructure void within a major metropolitan area. There are no sealed roads, no reticulated water or sewerage systems, and no connections to gas or reliable electricity grids. The Contract of Sale for the Penna Avenue lots explicitly confirms this reality, stating there is “no access to the Property by Road” and ticking “Not Connected” for every essential service.
This lack of formal management and access has created a vacuum, turning the area into a notorious dumping ground. The landscape is scarred by piles of tyres, rotting timber, and industrial refuse. The problem is not merely aesthetic; it is a significant environmental hazard. Glen Ora Estate Pty Ltd, a company seeking to develop the area, and its directors have faced legal action from the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) for over $828,000 related to the alleged dumping of contaminated spoil, including asbestos, copper, and lead. Further, in 2023,
EPA Victoria laid charges against the company and its directors for the alleged dumping of industrial waste and for contravening a clean-up notice.
The physical decay of Solomon Heights is a direct and tangible consequence of the intangible legal and planning vacuum. The original subdivision created roads on paper but never vested them in the local council. This ambiguity led to a legal battle between Glen Ora Estate and Brimbank City Council over who was responsible for the unformed roads. In a pivotal 2018 Supreme Court judgment, the court declared that the roads were not public highways and remained in private ownership, a victory for Glen Ora. However, this clarification of private ownership did little to solve the management problem. Without clear public stewardship, the area remained a no-man’s-land, an open invitation for the illegal dumping that now defines its character. The blight is a symptom of a deep-seated legal and planning disease.
The Planning Law Impasse: A Century of Paralysis
The regulatory stalemate is as profound as the physical neglect. Brimbank City Council acknowledges the precinct’s problems but is trapped by the scale of the issue. The council’s official position is to advocate for a holistic, equitable outcome for all 143-odd property owners, but it has no plans for public acquisition, citing the prohibitive cost. It opposes the piecemeal development approach championed by entities like Glen Ora, arguing it undermines the potential for a landscape-scale solution that balances development with conservation. The council is slowly developing Industrial Design Guidelines for its precincts, but this is a far cry from a funded, actionable plan for Solomon Heights.
Higher levels of government have also failed to break the deadlock. The Victorian Planning Authority (VPA) has identified the precinct as a “transitional” investigation area within the broader Sunshine National Employment and Innovation Cluster and has provided past grants for master planning, but these initiatives have yet to yield a concrete resolution. The result is a classic case of planning paralysis, where multiple tiers of government recognize a significant problem but none possess the political will or financial capacity to impose a comprehensive solution, condemning the land to remain in its zombie state.
The Green Gauntlet: Environmental Law and the Accidental Sanctuary
A Refuge for the Critically Endangered
The century of neglect that caused the urban blight has had an unintended and profoundly complicating consequence: it has turned Solomon Heights into an accidental conservation zone of national significance. The absence of agriculture, construction, and soil disturbance has allowed a remnant of the critically endangered Natural Temperate Grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain (NTGVVP) to survive. This grassland provides a crucial habitat for a suite of flora and fauna protected under federal law, making the site’s ecology its single greatest barrier to development.
Key protected species found on the site include:
- Spiny Rice-flower (Pimelea spinescens): This delicate, yellow-flowered shrub is listed as critically endangered under both federal and state law. It is a long-lived species, potentially surviving for up to 100 years, with a deep taproot that allows it to resprout after fire. Ecological surveys have identified 240 of these plants within Solomon Heights, a significant population that developers and authorities cannot ignore. The federal environment department has explicitly stated it does not support proposals to translocate the plants, viewing in-situ preservation as paramount.
- Golden Sun Moth (Synemon plana): Also listed as critically endangered or vulnerable, this day-flying moth is entirely dependent on native grasslands for its lifecycle. The moths have a very limited dispersal ability, with males rarely travelling more than 100 metres, meaning that habitat fragmentation caused by roads or buildings can easily lead to the isolation and collapse of local populations.
- Striped Legless Lizard (Delma impar): This vulnerable reptile, often mistaken for a small snake, also relies on the native tussock grasslands found at Solomon Heights.
Federal Entanglement and the EPBC Act
The presence of these species elevates the Solomon Heights problem from a local planning dispute to a matter of national environmental significance. Any proposed action that is likely to have a significant impact on these species must be referred to the federal Environment Minister for approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This legislation effectively gives the Commonwealth a power of veto over any development.
This federal overlay has created a jurisdictional paradox that is central to the ongoing paralysis. While Brimbank City Council is responsible for local land-use planning under its Industrial 3 Zone, it cannot realistically approve a development that would harm these protected species, as such an approval would almost certainly be nullified by the federal government. This clash between local planning aspirations and national conservation mandates is the core of the impasse.
In an attempt to navigate this, Glen Ora Estate entered into a Strategic Assessment agreement with the Commonwealth government in 2017 for the southern portion of the site. This process, under Section 146 of the EPBC Act, is designed to take a “big-picture” look at the cumulative impacts of a development plan. However, the process has dragged on for over seven years without resolution. Furthermore, Brimbank Council formally opposes this assessment, arguing that its focus on only the southern half of the estate is not a holistic approach and undermines the ability to achieve a meaningful, landscape-scale conservation outcome for the entire precinct. This conflict ensures that even the designated pathway for resolving the environmental issues is itself mired in dispute and delay.
The Key Players: A Web of Conflict and Property Litigation
The Developer: Glen Ora Estate Pty Ltd
At the centre of the modern push for development is Glen Ora Estate Pty Ltd, a company directed by Ron Silverstein. The company’s stated objective is to fulfil the promise of the original 1926 subdivision by constructing roads, drainage, and other essential services. Glen Ora’s business model is not that of a traditional developer who acquires land to build on; instead, it owns the “paper roads” and aims to charge the individual lot owners a substantial infrastructure levy—at one point proposed at $200,000 plus GST per lot—once services are connected.
This model is only viable if the lots become developable, which has driven the company to pursue an aggressive and costly multi-front legal and administrative strategy. This includes:
- Supreme Court of Victoria: Successfully suing Brimbank Council to confirm private ownership of the roads.
- Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT): Appealing Greater Western Water’s refusal to grant water connection permits.
- Commonwealth Government: Engaging in the lengthy Strategic Assessment process under the EPBC Act.
This strategy demonstrates that Glen Ora’s primary “development” activity is not construction but litigation and administrative lobbying. It is attempting to create value by forcing the hand of government and untangling the legal knot that has paralysed the area. However, this approach is fraught with risk and has attracted significant legal trouble. The company is being sued by the ARTC for over $828,000 for alleged contamination and, more seriously, faces criminal charges from EPA Victoria for illegal waste dumping, including asbestos. These legal battles represent major operational and reputational threats to its entire strategy.
The Regulator: Brimbank City Council
Brimbank City Council is caught in an unenviable position. It is the statutory planning authority responsible for the land, but lacks the resources or a clear mandate to resolve the century-old problem. The council officially supports a fair and comprehensive solution that protects the precinct’s immense environmental value, but has stated it cannot afford a public buy-back scheme. It has been in direct legal conflict with Glen Ora over road ownership and opposes the company’s piecemeal development strategy, which it sees as a threat to a proper conservation outcome. The council is effectively trapped between its obligations to frustrated landowners, its duty to uphold planning laws, and the overriding constraints imposed by federal environmental legislation.
The Landowners: From Frustration to Speculation
The landowners of Solomon Heights are a diverse group. For decades, the majority were passive, long-term holders like the late Judith Rickard or the frustrated Joe Zahara, who has owned land for over 30 years. These owners have paid council rates and water availability charges on unusable, unserviced land, with little more than fading hope of a resolution.
The purchasers of the Penna Avenue lots represent a new guard. They are not individuals hoping to one day build a factory or home; they are corporate entities and trusts making a calculated, high-risk investment. These sophisticated speculators are acquiring a non-income-producing asset purely for its potential for future capital gain. This shift in ownership from disparate, passive individuals to potentially coordinated investment vehicles could fundamentally alter the political and legal dynamics of the precinct. The problem is now attracting capital that seeks to profit directly from resolving the dysfunction.
Case Study: The Penna Avenue Sale – A Deceased Estate Success Story
The Asset and its History
The four lots at the heart of this analysis—Lots 40, 41, 42, and 43 on Plan of Subdivision LP 11601—are located on the unformed Penna Avenue. Title documents show a history of ownership dating back to the 1970s, with Judith A Rickard eventually becoming the sole proprietor. Upon her passing, the properties fell to her estate, with executors tasked with their administration. For an estate, the fiduciary duty to realise value for beneficiaries provided a powerful impetus to test the market for these assets, which had long been dismissed as worthless.
The Transaction Under the Microscope
The Contract of Sale for Lot 42, located at 30 Penna Avenue, provides a forensic insight into how such a transaction was possible. The property was purchased by INFINITY IBEAUTY PTY LTD as trustee for a trust, for a price of $200,000, with settlement occurring on 8 April 2024.
The Power of Full Disclosure: The Critical Role of the Section 32 Statement
The critical component that enabled this sale was the vendor’s Section 32 Statement. This legal document, prepared by Hayton Kosky Lawyers, provided the purchaser with exhaustive and unflinching disclosure of the land’s profound defects. This strategy of radical transparency is a cornerstone of sound property law practice.
The statement laid bare every known issue, including:
- Planning and Title: Full copies of the title, the 1926 plan, and a Planning Property Report detailing the Industrial 3 Zone and the multiple restrictive overlays (Environmental Significance, Melbourne Airport Environs, Development Contributions Plan).
- Access and Services: An explicit, unambiguous statement that “There is no access to the Property by Road” and a table confirming zero connected services—no electricity, gas, water, sewerage, or telephone.
- Hazards: Notice that the property is located within a designated Bushfire Prone Area.
- Contextual Disputes: The statement also included correspondence related to the area’s complex issues, ensuring the buyer was aware of the broader disputes and paralysis.
Furthermore, the contract was fortified with robust special conditions that negated any vendor warranties regarding the property’s condition, suitability for any use, or the provision of services, effectively placing the entirety of the immense risk squarely on the purchaser’s shoulders. By disclosing every known flaw, the vendor fulfilled all legal obligations under the Sale of Land Act 1962 and neutralised any potential for the purchaser to claim misrepresentation and rescind the contract. This process filtered the market, repelling all conventional buyers and attracting only a niche subset of sophisticated and presumably cashed-up investors. These buyers were not purchasing land in the traditional sense; they were knowingly acquiring a high-risk, speculative financial option on the precinct’s future, fully informed of the odds against them. The 4 lots sold were Lot 40, 41, 42 and 43 (also known as 28-34 Penna Avenue
The Speculator’s Endgame: The High-Stakes Economics of Zombie Land
The Speculative Investment Thesis: Land Banking in Sunshine North
The purchase of a lot in Solomon Heights is a pure form of land banking, a speculative investment strategy with a binary outcome. The investors are not buying a productive asset; they are buying a lottery ticket. The rationale is straightforward: if the complex web of planning, legal, and environmental issues is ever resolved, the value of these lots would appreciate exponentially. A $200,000 parcel of unserviced, inaccessible land could become a serviced, developable industrial lot worth many times that price, given its location just 12 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD.
This is a high-stakes gamble. The investment generates no income and incurs ongoing costs, including rates and charges. The investors are betting that one of the protagonists—Glen Ora, the government, or a future master developer—will break the century-long deadlock. This is a stark contrast to the broader Australian property market, which, although it contains speculative elements, is primarily driven by the productive value of housing and rental yields. The buyers of Penna Avenue are betting on a political or legal miracle.
Potential Futures and Pathways to Resolution
The endgame for these speculative investments depends on which of several possible futures unfolds for Solomon Heights:
- Scenario A: The Glen Ora Victory. If Glen Ora Estate succeeds in its VCAT appeal against the water authority and navigates the federal environmental approvals, it could begin installing infrastructure. Lot owners would then face a choice: pay the substantial levy to connect their lot, or sell to another party willing to do so. This is the future Glen Ora is actively litigating to create.
- Scenario B: Government Intervention and Acquisition. The state or federal government could eventually declare the situation intractable and initiate a compulsory acquisition and buy-back scheme. This has been done in other failed subdivisions in Victoria, such as at Phillip Island and Ninety Mile Beach. This would provide a financial exit for all landowners, and the land would most likely be consolidated into a permanent conservation reserve.
- Scenario C: State-Led Master Plan. A more proactive government approach could see a state agency like Development Victoria compulsorily acquire the entire 32.8-hectare precinct. The agency could then remediate the land, restructure the titles, create a large conservation reserve for the most sensitive areas, and sell off consolidated, serviced parcels for appropriate industrial development. This is the most comprehensive, yet also the most politically challenging and expensive, solution.
- Scenario D: Continued Stasis. The current paralysis persists indefinitely. Legal battles continue, environmental studies are repeated, and no party gains the upper hand. In this scenario, the speculative investments on Penna Avenue would yield no return and could eventually be written off as a total loss.
The emergence of these new, financially motivated investors may itself be a catalyst. Unlike the passive owners of the past, these new players have a strong incentive to actively lobby, litigate, and pool resources to force a resolution. The Penna Avenue sales have effectively led to the financialization of a planning problem, attracting capital that now has a vested interest in seeing one of these future scenarios come to pass.
Conclusion: Legal Lessons from Melbourne’s Most Complex Property Puzzle
The Solomon Heights Estate is a “perfect storm” of historical planning failure, accidental ecological preservation, jurisdictional conflict, and modern legal warfare. For a century, it has stood as a monument to inaction. The recent sales of four lots on Penna Avenue, long considered unsaleable by their owner, are therefore a pivotal event. They demonstrate that even the most distressed, blighted, and constrained real estate asset can find a market and have significant value, provided there is absolute transparency regarding its myriad flaws. For the deceased estate that sold them, the transactions represent a remarkable success, transforming a multi-generational, worthless liability into a substantial financial return for its beneficiaries.
More broadly, these sales signal a fundamental shift in the precinct’s dynamics. They mark the end of an era of passive frustration and the beginning of a new, more volatile and speculative chapter. The entry of sophisticated, well-resourced investors, whose sole motivation is the capital gain that would follow a resolution, introduces a powerful new force into the stalemate. These new owners are unlikely to wait patiently for another century. Their presence may be the catalyst that finally forces a definitive outcome for Solomon Heights, whether through private development, government acquisition, or a combination of both. Navigating the sale or purchase of such a uniquely challenged asset underscores the absolute necessity of expert legal guidance. The story of Melbourne’s most notorious zombie subdivision is far from over; it has simply entered its next, and perhaps most decisive, phase.
reference The Age newspaper