End of jacaranda season offerings at Grafton: He Said/She Said
As this year’s calendar clicks into December, the jacaranda season draws to a close with purple trademark trees turning green across Australia’s east coast.
The onset of flowering Jacarandas signifies the peak of the spring property market, and their disappearance indicates Christmas is nigh.
For the past two months, flashes of lilac from trees in full bloom have been a familiar sight across Sydney where the season was even more impressive than the glorious 2013 flowering period, note our Jacaranda enthusiasts, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok.
This week they seek out late season property listings at Grafton, the NSW north coast town known for its annual Jacaranda Festival celebrated in late October - this year was its 80th anniversary.
HE SAID:
It’s no secret I’m an unabashed fan of these magnificent trees – but at a distance for I’m not fond of the fallen mess made especially after rain.
Hence, my first selection of 108 Through Street, South Grafton – a gorgeous hardwood three bedroom, two bathroom cottage positioned across the road from the Clarence River. Lucky for me, the Jacaranda is conveniently growing next door.
Listed for sale through Ryan Creed of Elders Real Estate Grafton, the property has an asking price of $310,000, and its recent rental appraisal is $290 per week…river breezes included.
My second choice is out at Copmanhurst (in the foothills of the Gibraltar Range and about 75 kilometres west of Grafton) where The Gorge is listed at $3.75 million through LJ Hooker Grafton.
Operating as a tourism enterprise, this property comprises 1,800 hectares freehold and 1,200 hectares leasehold.
As the selling agent Matt Dougherty says the current owners have developed The Gorge into a highly acclaimed tourism enterprise which is home to the best wild bass fishing in Australia. Campers flock there to witness the unspoilt beauty of the valley and it is pure heaven for the keen fisherman…Margie will love it. But according to the booking schedule, she will have to book ahead a year ahead to hire “The Shack” which offers visitors a taste of luxury.
Little known, but the prize for me is that growing on the property is Australia’s largest Jacaranda – listed on the National Register of Big Trees. Some six metres circumference, 30 metres high and a crown of 36 metres.
SHE SAID:
My Grafton pick is a pretty weatherboard house described by selling agents Rod Ford and Robyn Hunt, of First National Real Estate Bailey & Gough, as “Sonaisali on Alice” – a confusing misnomer for the renovated residence bears no hint of Fijian style.
Situated at 39 Alice Street, this property stands on a large block in one of Grafton’s most sought after heritage streets which is close to the river and a short walk from expansive parklands shaded by beautiful Jacaranda trees.
For sale at $399,000, the property has a wide driveway leading to the four-bedroom two-bathroom house, and a swimming pool in the grounds.
I like the comfortable look of this house, and also its huge garage where I’d keep my fishing gear. I’d also have a kayak which I could paddle across the river, past Susan Island, to visit Jonathan in his modest cottage on the southern foreshore.
Of course, he’ll say the Jacarandas on his side of the river are superior to those on my northern shore.
