The price of Victoria Barracks is much higher than $200 million

October 29, 2026 — 11:17am

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I’m an Australian Army veteran, a clinical psychologist and a Sydneysider. Over the past few months I’ve heard the same thing, on repeat, from veterans I know through my networks. They are angry about the sale of Victoria Barracks. But underneath the anger, a lot of them are grieving.

What I keep hearing is a sense of being abandoned. Many people feel nobody asked them, nobody is listening, and there’s nothing they can do to change it. For a group that has already spent decades trying to get the system to hear them, that powerlessness lands hard.

The government’s case is about money. The defence minister says keeping Victoria Barracks as a defence site would cost about $200 million over the next decade, and the wider sale of 67 properties is expected to raise billions. Meanwhile, about 500 people there are packing boxes to........

© The Sydney Morning Herald