Bathurst Regional Council and orchardist Lee Rayner have exchanged contracts for a 32 hectare (80 acre) parcel of land off College Road.

While council will not disclose the official purchase price, it is believed to be around $4.5 million as exclusively reported when the Western Advocate broke the story on April 11, 2015.

This latest purchase is seen as the missing link in council’s land acquisition program for the second track – giving it control of 85 hectares (212 acres) of property on the eastern side of the famous track.

The purchase of the Rayner-owned Appleton Orchard will see the design and planning phase of the second circuit commence at the start of the coming financial year, after council signs off on its 2015-16 budget next Wednesday night.

That all-important management plan has an allocation of $15 million to be put aside as the first down payment on a total spend of about $50 million for the initiative.

Of this $15 million, council will chip in $662,000 from reserves and loans of another $338,000 with the remaining $14 million coming from federal and state government grants. 

The State Government has already come up with $5 million for the project in the 2014-15 financial year.

Bathurst mayor Gary Rush told the Western Advocate yesterday the exchange of contracts was a critical component of its land acquisition program in that area.

“Some of the legalities of the contract for this parcel of land are still in the throws of being sorted out, but saying that, council is confident the sale will proceed following lengthy negotiations with the owners of the land,” he said.

“The price is undisclosed, but it’s 80 acres and now [this] gives council 212 acres in that precinct to move forward with the second track.

“I think we will look back in decades to come at the magnitude of this deal in the push to bring the second track to fruition.

“The $15 million in next year’s budget is the main item in the $189 million management plan. We anticipate the settlement of this land deal to occur about the same time as the budget comes into force around the end of the month.”

Cr Rush said the design process could now begin as part of the creation an overall master plan for the second circuit over the next 10 or 20 years.

“This is huge for Bathurst, I can’t stress that enough,” he said.