Recent Oceania Court Cases

Abstract

The baseline Oceania installment of Recent Court Decisions surveys Australia and New Zealand; every decision treated as authority was read in English, and the Australian material is New South Wales and Queensland only. In Goldmate Property Luddenham No 1 Pty Ltd v Transport for NSW [2026] NSWLEC 22 the Land and Environment Court, on remitter, awarded $38,353,979.78 against an original determination of approximately $9.75 million, applying the Court of Appeal's holding that the public purpose to be disregarded is the M12 Motorway alone. The New South Wales compensation decisions of 2025-26 turn on underlying zoning: in UPG 72 [2025] NSWLEC 29 the award of $1,235,521.20 fell below the $2,494,984.44 offered, the council nonetheless paying costs. In Clark v Sunshine Coast Regional Council the Land Appeal Court confined the "liberal estimate" principle to equally plausible results. Aquamore Finance v Castles Valuers [2026] NSWSC 248 is the only negligent-valuation finding, and statutory land-value, estate, share-valuation and damages decisions follow. For New Zealand the installment states the Public Works Act 1981 measure, reports Liow v Martelli [2026] NZCA 101, which discarded the Smallfield v Brown test for consent to cross-lease alterations, and notes reform proposals whose incentive payments sit outside market value. Victorian and Western Australian acquisition decisions and the 2026 New Zealand Land Valuation Tribunal decisions are among those not yet surveyed.