About noon yesterday, Premier John Brumby and two of his ministers, scores of his staff, and 300 of Australia's most handsomely rewarded transport stakeholders sat down to a superbly catered three-course meal at Federation Square's Zinc restaurant, with much of the tab picked up by the public.

At about the same time, Rhiannon Modica was at home in Footscray's Buckley Street, finding out for the first time - from journalists - that the family house was about to be forcibly taken and bulldozed. Evidently, she is not a stakeholder.

In all, 26 houses will be razed around Buckley Street for the $4.3 billion Regional Rail Link project.

Government spokeswoman Ilsa Colson said ''every effort'' had been made to contact the 26 households affected.