The son of a rich-lister and his wife pursuing their first Victorian development, with 35 townhouses advancing through a fast-track pathway that bypasses third-party review rights.
Simon and Anna Ainsworth are planning the homes on a former Mount Eliza plant nursery through the state’s Great Design Fast Track.
Thunderbirds Are Go (TaG) filed the application for the 1.1ha triangular site at 1501 Nepean Highway, 45km south of the Melbourne CBD.
According to the planning report by Tract Consultants, it is TaG’s first development project in Victoria.
TaG is a private development entity within the couple’s FAB 1 family office. Simon is a son of Aristocrat founder and poker machine pioneer Len Ainsworth, 102. Ainsworth, who has seven sons, was listed 24th on the Financial Review 2025 Rich List with an estimated net worth of $6.69 billion.
Owners of garden centre business Eden Gardens, the couple filed plans in 2021 for a $155-million office development at their Macquarie Park site in northern Sydney.
That proposal was refused by the Sydney North Planning Panel in 2022 and again in court in 2024.
The Mount Eliza scheme has had a smoother run, securing the three state sign-offs the pathway requires.
Support from the Office of the Victorian Government Architect came in August, followed in September by an eligibility letter from the Department of Transport and Planning and a feasibility confirmation from Invest Victoria.
The planning minister is now the responsible authority, and the application is exempt from third-party review rights.
Plans by architect Breathe include five two, 28 three and two four-bedroom townhouses, none higher than two storeys.
Arranged around a central village green, the homes would share 5454sq m of communal open space. The scheme proposes 48 carparking spaces, including five for visitors.
Each home would target a minimum 7.5-star NatHERS rating and be fossil fuel-free, with solar panels, EV charging provision and a 2000L rainwater tank.
Operating as a plant nursery from the 1980s until 2018, the site is home to the 19th-century Inverell Cottage, which is protected under a heritage overlay along with its hawthorn hedge.
Once serving as the nursery’s café, the cottage would be restored and converted into a 72sq m indoor communal space for residents.
Of the 40 trees on site, 39 would be removed, including a high-value English oak that the report said must go to make way for a retaining wall on the sloping site.
Replacement planting would lift canopy cover to 41.2 per cent, more than double the planning scheme’s 20 per cent requirement.
Mornington Peninsula has a target of 24,000 new homes by 2051 under the Plan for Victoria.
