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Australia has abandoned plans to sell four historic military properties, keeping the land in public ownership while still moving Defence personnel out. The decision removes Sydney’s Victoria Barracks and three Victorian sites from the government’s property-sale program and shifts responsibility for them to the Finance department.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the change on Sunday, November 8, Australian time, after opposition from veterans, heritage campaigners and politicians across party lines. The four properties are Victoria Barracks Sydney, Victoria Barracks Melbourne, Fort Queenscliff and RAAF Williams Point Cook.
Public ownership replaces the planned sales
The government will retain the properties rather than sell them to private buyers, according to Sunday reporting. Defence personnel will still relocate, with the government planning to open the historic sites to the public.
That distinction matters for the real-estate program: the government has reversed the proposed change in ownership, not the decision to stop using the properties as active Defence facilities.
“Victoria Barracks Sydney has a special place in our nation’s history – and we will be keeping it in public hands,” Albanese said in a statement quoted in the reporting.
He said the program would create opportunities to open historic Defence buildings to the public and commemorate the country’s history.
Wider Defence property sales continue
The four sites were part of a broader program covering 67 Defence properties identified for disposal following an estate audit. Other proposed sales remain in place; the decision does not cancel the entire program.
The broader program was intended to redirect money tied up in underused land and buildings toward military capability. The government had estimated that maintaining Victoria Barracks Sydney as a Defence facility would cost A$200 million over ten years, according to separate reporting.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the military needed a fit-for-purpose estate and should focus its spending on capability. Transferring the properties to Finance keeps them outside Defence’s operating estate while retaining public ownership.
Future use becomes the next property decision
For Sydney’s Paddington barracks, the reversal ends the planned private sale of a prominent inner-city heritage property. It does not amount to an approved housing or commercial redevelopment.
The government has not announced who will operate the site. The Australian War Memorial will advise on presenting the properties’ military history, according to the separate report.
RSL Australia welcomed the decision as a partial victory but called for the remaining sales to be halted pending a Senate inquiry. Its objection now extends beyond ownership: the group also wants to preserve military capability at the sites.
JBizNews Desk | Sydney, Australia
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