IT would be "a public blood bath" if the Hunter Valley Railway Trust was forced off its home at Huntlee Estate at North Rothbury, it was put to property developers in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
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Danny Murphy, a director of Misthold Pty Limited, the development company behind the Huntlee Estate, said he could not recall a conversation with railway enthusiast Chris Richards in 2012 in which that phrase was used.
He did not recall the conversation in which Mr Richards also alleges Mr Murphy said "no one wanted to go down that trail" of a public relations disaster.
Mr Murphy denied putting pressure on Mr Richards to sign a short term lease, knowing that Mr Richards could not afford, and did not have, legal representation. He was unaware whether or not Mr Richards was getting legal advice, he said.
Misthold is seeking to have NSW Historic Sites and Railway Heritage Company Pty Limited, trustee for the Hunter Valley Railway Trust, vacate the land it occupies and where it has homed, maintained, run and repaired hundreds of historic trains, and 5 kilometres of heritage-listed operational railway track ending at Wine Country Drive.
Their case is that Mr Richards, a director of that company, has failed to vacate the land, after signing a lease which ended in 2014.
There is a cross-claim, in which Mr Richards says Huntlee is guilty of unconscionable and misleading conduct, pressuring him to sign a lease which did not include a railway museum, which he says he was promised.
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Mr Murphy has told the court that he never envisaged a museum for the site, as suggested by Mr Richards, but agreed that a museum was discussed. He said what he had in mind was something he would describe as a dynamic, interactive "train park".
He agreed, when it was put to him, that would involve a branch line railway right to the site, bringing tourist trains from Sydney to the Hunter, workshops with teaching and training involving the main carriage workshops, and other activities, and that that was what was discussed with Mr Richards.
However, Mr Murphy also agreed that in correspondence with Huntlee, he said it was important "to be seen to be preserving a remnant of the museum on the site" from a public relations perspective.
He also agreed that he issued a joint press release with Mr Richards, put out under the names Huntlee and HVRT, saying that the two entities had entered into an agreement for the long-term management, ownership, restoration and running of the historic railway collection at North Rothbury. It would remain there as "an important and permanent part of the Huntlee development" the release said.
When asked if that was accurate, Mr Murphy agreed on Tuesday that it was. Mr Murphy argues, however, that subsequent negotiations and to agreements superceded those commitments.
The hearing before Justice Anthony Payne, which is into its second week, is expected to continue until Friday.
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