This project was to bring proton therapy to Australia. Alternate plans tell another story

A development on prime Sydney real estate pitched Australian-first proton therapy. But will it deliver? Sue Bleasel says she is running out of time. She needs a building and a subterranean concrete bunker to house a highly specialised cancer treatment machine. If she can find $22 million Ms Bleasel says she can make it happen. "In two months' time, we've got to have this money in," she said. It's been the 79-year-old's decades' long mission to bring proton therapy, a very precise form of radiation treatment, to Australia so that sick kids can stop travelling overseas for treatment. On paper it looks like her dream is about to be realised. Ms Bleasel's plan to bring a lifesaving machine to Australia is at the centre of a half-a-billion-dollar Sydney development. "I sold it to them on the basis of 'this will be the jewel in your crown'," Ms Bleasel said. The sell worked. The developer absorbed it, the City of Sydney council and the NSW state government green-lit the development, and federal politician Tanya Plibersek also backed it in. But with construction about to begin Ms Bleasel's proton therapy unit is far from certain. She still doesn't have the money and key organisations say they're not involved. And the ABC has learned the developer who championed Ms Bleasel's machine made another set of plans for its site — plans that don't include Ms Bleasel or proton therapy. If Ms Bleasel's dream isn't realised it won't just be a blow for her. It will mark yet another disappointment for families who have young children with rare forms of cancer who've been desperately lobbying for the machine to be brought to Australia. And it will put more pressure on governments across the country to solve a problem that continues to bedevil them. An empty bunker Long before Ms Bleasel and a private developer began spearheading plans for proton therapy in Sydney, Australia had another plan. The state and federal governments put more than $100 million in public funds towards a new purpose-built building in Adelaide, completed in 2023, with a specialised bunker to house the imported machine. But the grand plans for a proton therapy unit failed and to this day the bunker is empty. In its absence the Australian government pays millions per year for the flights, accommodation and treatment of patients who need to access it overseas. Five-year-old Charlie Fraser and her mother Kate Fraser recently took one of those flights. Charlie has an exceptionally rare, malignant brain tumour. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy first, but she also needed radiation. Ms Fraser said her specialists were clear — proton therapy was the best option. "They said, 'America is the best. You need to go to Florida because proton radiation will give you the best accuracy and the least damage,'" she said. For kids like Charlie that means after the months of gruelling treatment end they can expect less damage to their organs, fewer side effects and a better quality of life. So the whole family paused their lives in regional Victoria and went to America — one of more than 20 countries around the world with a proton therapy machine. What followed was two months in an apartment in Florida, every day marked with a routine of fasting, anaesthetic and radiation for Charlie. "You can become really quite clinical to what's going on because you become the kid's advocate in understanding their cues, understanding when they've got infections, when their counts are low," Ms Fraser said. "Then when the emotion does hit you it's like a bloody tonne of bricks." Despite being on the other side of the world Ms Fraser was able to turn to other Australian parents in the hospital waiting room with their own children, for the same reason. "Seeing other people who … had to stop their whole lives to come to the other side of the world and leave their support system just shows and reminds you that we shouldn't really have to do this," she said. "We have world-class healthcare [in Australia]. Our doctors and that are just as good. It's just we need this bloody machine." Proton becomes Sue Bleasel's mission For more than two decades, as more Australian families flew back and forward overseas for treatment, Ms Bleasel has tried to plug the country's proton therapy gap. "I thought, 'gosh, this is going to be a fabulous challenge'," she said. "And here we are, 20 years later." During that time Ms Bleasel founded a company called Proton Therapy Australia, wrote business cases, made submissions to government, met with families and fundraised what she could. And in 2023, the year the Adelaide building was finished, Ms Bleasel found a foothold with a developer called Kurraba Group. She heard they had plans to build a life sciences precinct on prime Sydney real estate and decided to pitch her project. "I went to them and said 'I want to be in your building'," Ms Bleasel said. "And they said, 'Well, we'll go to state government and we'll do this design … and there'll be a proton facility in it.'" Kurraba submitted plans for a multi-million-dollar state significant health research facility, complete with offices, laboratories, retail spaces, and a large concrete bunker to house the 100-tonne machine. As the publicly funded project in Adelaide stalled in late 2024 this privately owned and operated development looked suddenly set to become the country's first proton therapy unit. Ms Bleasel began promoting the project. But by mid to late-2024, as it gained public momentum, the proton therapy plans were becoming uncertain. Not just for Ms Bleasel, but also for the developer which was privately telling some investors a very different story. "[I was told] 'oh no, no, we're not running with that anymore'," one Sydney property investor who looked at the project said. "'We're not running with Sue Bleasel's Proton Therapy Sydney … we're running with someone else.'" The investor When Kurraba's pitch document first landed on the investor's desk he immediately knew he wanted in. "Who doesn't think that treating kids with cancer is an amazing idea?" said Tony, who asked not be identified by his real name to avoid backlash within the industry. He said Kurraba pitched him "Australia's first commercial life sciences building" complete with the country's first ever proton therapy machine. But Tony's due diligence quickly made him think twice. For one, Ms Bleasel wasn't locked in. She'd been negotiating a long-term lease for a proton therapy facility but had not yet signed an agreement with Kurraba. And given the building plan was anchored in Ms Bleasel's plan, if she faltered Tony was told it might too. "Proton was the fundamental reason that tenants and researchers would want to be there," he said. "If there's no proton, why would they come?" Tony was also unable to verify the involvement of some of the organisations attached to the project, including prominent cancer research institute Chris O'Brien Lifehouse. The only evidence he had was a dated non-binding agreement between Ms Bleasel and Chris O'Brien Lifehouse that did not mention the Sydney proton therapy project. Initially, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse said it was not involved with Ms Bleasel's project and never had been. However, it later clarified that the organisation had been in talks with Sue until mid-2024. "It was apparent that the project had little prospect of progressing," Chris O'Brien Lifehouse said. An important reference Despite concerns behind closed doors about the viability of the proton centre developing, support for Kurraba's project was coming from high places. In June 2024, Kurraba representatives met with an electorate officer of federal MP Tanya Plibersek, whose seat of Sydney includes the site they were proposing to develop. A spokesperson for Ms Plibersek said the minister and her office regularly meet with people about projects in the Sydney electorate. Two months after the meeting Ms Plibersek wrote a letter to the NSW planning minister endorsing Kurraba's project. She described the development as "an important collaboration with all levels of government" and singled out proton therapy. "One of the most compelling aspects of the project is its commitment to life-saving healthcare, particularly through the establishment of NSW's first proton cancer therapy treatment centre," the letter read. "This centre has great potential to address critical healthcare needs in our region and is backed by Ion Beam Applications (IBA) worldwide, the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse (also in my electorate) with training provided by University of Pennsylvania." But like Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, the University of Pennsylvania said its radiation and oncology team were not involved with Kurraba or Ms Bleasel's project. IBA said it was in talks about its technology but hadn't signed anything with the developer or Ms Bleasel. Ms Plibersek's office would not say if it cross-checked with each organisation before adding their names to a letter of support. For months, Ms Bleasel said the same story that appeared in Ms Plibersek's letter. She later clarified that Chris O'Brien Lifehouse and the University of Pennsylvania were not involved in her Sydney project and that all partnerships were contingent on raising money. "They're not signed off because they can't sign off until I've got the money," Ms Bleasel said. The fundraiser By the end of 2024, as the City of Sydney was considering Kurraba's development proposal, there was also a clear sign Ms Bleasel was struggling to raise the money her project needed. In a "call to investors" published on social media she appeared alongside Kurraba's chief executive Nick Smith and said she had raised almost $34 million, but needed a further $50 million. Mr Smith said Kurruba was "invested in seeing these guys get the operation up and running and benefit the whole of Sydney and the whole of Australia". He pledged $11 million to build the specialised bunker and another $7 million to fund Ms Bleasel's project ongoing. Tony, who decided not to invest, watched on in disbelief. "No-one's raising $50 million for a proton therapy unit on Facebook," he said. "That's just not how this thing gets done." It wasn't the only thing that made Tony sceptical. Kurraba's public support for Ms Bleasel's proton therapy project did not match what he'd been told behind closed doors. The developer had another set of plans, not involving Ms Bleasel, to install a different machine. The other plan There are three sets of documents that map the trajectory of Kurraba's life sciences development — the public plans, a trove of internal government correspondence obtained by the ABC via a Freedom of Information request, and some of Kurraba's own company documents. These documents show that in 2023, Kurraba submitted a proposal to the NSW state government for a state significant "health research facility" that included plans for a proton therapy clinic. If a development is deemed "state significant" by the government it is subjected to quicker approval timelines and less red tape. The state government moved swiftly to grant the project state significance and by September 2024 everything was handed over to the City of Sydney to approve the plans. And just like the original pitch to the state government, these plans included "NSW's first proton therapy cancer treatment centre in the amalgamated basement". It's at this point where Kurraba's public and private narrative started to split. Before it submitted these plans, including proton therapy, Kurraba's company documents show it had other ideas for a cheaper and smaller machine called a cyclotron. Although a cyclotron can be used for medical research it doesn't treat cancer patients. The ABC sighted a dozen instances where Kurraba discussed the cyclotron plan in detail, including who would take the lease, who would operate it, and what model of machine. Kurraba also had their architect draw up new plans and their builders re-cost the project and draft a new construction timeline. None of that information made it to Ms Bleasel, the City of Sydney or the NSW state government. Ms Bleasel said although she wasn't notified about the alternate plans she remained in "active, ongoing commercial negotiations with Kurraba". While Mr Smith declined a request for an on-the-record interview, Kurraba said it too remained in "active discussions" with prospective tenants, including Ms Bleasel's Proton Therapy Australia. In February 2025 the City of Sydney considered and conditionally approved Kurraba's plans for a life sciences development featuring Australia's "first proton therapy cancer treatment centre". The plans were stamped, the old-brick warehouses on the site were emptied out, and construction was set for early 2026. But those buildings all still stand empty, nothing has been demolished and, according to residents, construction is now expected to start at the end of the year. Meanwhile, Ms Bleasel's coffers for the project are relatively empty too. She said in August that she had not raised the $22 million she needed as the first step towards funding the project. She said $6 million had been pledged to date, but nothing had been locked in. "To date, formal equity raised stands at $115,000 via a family and friends fundraising round conducted in 2011," Ms Bleasel said in a statement to the ABC. Is this dream of proton therapy fading? Tony the investor, who looked at the plan and decided it was too risky, kept wondering how the project progressed to this point without scrutiny? He felt like the council or the state government should have done the checks he did to ascertain if the proton therapy part of the development was likely to happen. "No-one asked. To this day no-one looks," he said. For a private development no-one has to ask. Proton therapy was mentioned extensively in the City of Sydney's decision to approve the project but a spokesperson said it was not the council's job to assess if parts of a project were deliverable, including the proton therapy facility. The council also said that Kurraba did not have to let them know if it changed "equipment or medical treatment focus", and that proton therapy wasn't the only reason the development was approved. The NSW state government said Kurraba's proposal met the criteria for a state significant development and that it does not assess the commercial viability of projects. Tony found it wrong that nobody seemed to care if the final development had proton therapy in it or not. "It's done. The land has been sold. The development approval is in place," he said. "You can't undo all of that stuff." Back from Florida As the future of the Sydney proposal remains unclear, Australian families continue to make the trip back and forward to proton centres around the world while pressure grows on the federal government to intervene and find another solution. When Kate Fraser and her family returned to Australia in August, on a long international flight, they learned their time in Florida had all been worth it. "We got remission this morning, which was amazing," Ms Fraser said. "Our oncologist went around the world, not physically but virtually, and the consensus right the way across was no more treatment." But Charlie Fraser should not have needed to go so far for treatment. It's now been nine years since the Adelaide project was first pitched, three years since the building was completed and two years since the contract for the proton therapy machine fell through. Oncologist Jordan Hansford, who moved to South Australia to help lay the foundations of that project, said he thought it would just be a blip. "I thought 'that's going to delay things', not thinking that several years later we'd still be in the same situation with no progress anywhere," he said. Last month the South Australian government announced it would take over the troubled project. "We have a bunker. The reality is the bunker that we have does not fit any other proton therapy unit other than the one that the former government signed us up for," SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said. "The question now is for the Commonwealth government." In Victoria, Melbourne's specialist cancer hospital Peter MacCallum has also put its hat in the ring with a proposal for a super-modern, ultra-compact proton therapy machine to go in an existing building. This would not be able to treat very young children, so for some families those flights overseas would continue. The federal government has announced it's now considering proposals from both states that would require further funding. "We're going to have to find new money," Health Minister Mark Butler told ABC Radio Adelaide in August. "We've basically lost the money we allocated to this because it was a failed project. And I'm very keen to do that and do it in partnership with governments like South Australia." But Professor Hansford says at this point it just needs to happen. "There is not a medical or radiation oncologist in my knowledge that would say that this has not become standard of care now," he said. "I do think we have a responsibility as a public health system to deliver it. I do think we have a responsibility to deliver it quickly."