The Court ordered the Authority to pay the applicant's costs of the proceeding (on an indemnity basis from the date the Authority rejected the applicant's Calderbank offer), but excluded the costs of a traffic engineering expert report related to an issue on which the applicant failed. The Court declined to apportion 7.5% of costs against the applicant for the unsuccessful 'Paper Road' issue, holding it was minor relative to the overall award and did not substantially increase costs. On interest under s 60(1) of the Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic), the Court disallowed interest for approximately five months (21 October 2024 to 31 March 2025) where the applicant's late application to file further evidence caused the trial to be vacated, but rejected the Authority's claim for suspension of the full eight-month adjournment period, finding the Authority also required preparation time and had itself failed to make any timely offer of compensation. The Authority's prolonged failure to make a substantive offer was held to be unreasonable conduct relevant to costs under s 91(1)(b) of the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (Vic), but the absence of an offer at the time of adjournment was not alone sufficient to defeat the Authority's claim for partial interest suspension.
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