Land LeaseChris ThomsonTue 05 May 26
Village Proposal for SA Home of Cumming’s First Cup Winner
ASX-listed Aspen Group has burst out of the gates with plans for a 125-home land lease and holiday village at a Fleurieu Peninsula farm where the first Melbourne Cup winning horse associated with the king of the Cup was foaled.
About 80km south of Adelaide, outside the coastal township of Normanville in a stable that was once a flour mill, champion stallion Comic Court was born in 1945.
The thoroughbred’s trainer was Jim M Cummings and its strapper was Jim’s son Bart who would go on to train horses to a record 12 Melbourne Cup victories. In 1950, Comic Court became the family’s first winner of the race that on the first Tuesday of every November purportedly stops a nation.
Out for public comment until May 19 are Aspen’s plans to convert the 10.6ha farm into a 125-home residential village and tourist park with 79 camping and caravan sites, and four cabins for travellers.
Should Aspen round the community consultation bend a neck ahead into the final approval straight and win the nod of the District Council of Yankalilla, the project will include a bowling green, pool and solar-powered community centre.
The village would be occupied mainly permanently by people over the age of 50 on a land lease basis that would allow many residents to be eligible for Commonwealth rent assistance.
Aspen bought the farm—which when the Cummings were starting off was known locally as Beau Neire—in September 2023.
Aspen joint chief executive John Carter told The Urban Developer many people visited Normanville on a seasonal basis, making it difficult for service businesses to maintain a year-round service in the township. He said the permanent residents of the land lease component of the planned Aspen Normanville project would mitigate that problem.
Carter said that as part of a separate future development application, Aspen would investigate how the state heritage listed stable building might be adapted and reused.
“There’s a lot of history on the site and we’d love to do up the historic heritage listed barn, which will be a later stage of the development,” he said.
“We do lots of heritage on our various sites and we’re very used to upcycling old heritage buildings.”
Carter said Aspen would aim to price each home around $400,000.
A right-of-way aligned with the southern boundary of the farm provides unrestricted access to the beach where the stud’s steeds used to exercise.
Aspen’s documents said that co-locating the residential and tourist parks would allow for efficiencies whereby a manager and landscape, maintenance and cleaning staff would be appointed to manage both facilities holistically—a bit like having a bet each way.
