Property developer Warren Anderson goes quietly this time, departing Fernhill after three decades
Property developer Warren Anderson has quietly vacated Fernhill, the historic mansion at Mulgoa in Sydney's outer west ahead of today’s departure date deadline.
Anderson was ordered to vacate the colonial Greek revival-style mansion by November 24.
He had been reluctant to depart the property – at one point arguing he had a binding lease – owned by the trustee company, Owston Nominees No 2 Pty Ltd, which went into receivership in March 2009.
It followed recent NSW Supreme Court proceedings when the first mortgagee Balanced Securities Ltd won proceedings for possession from Judge Nigel Rein.
Balanced lent $18.5 million to Owston Nominees No 2 Pty with the debt with interest accrued now at $31,365,122.42. Angas Securities, the second mortgagee, is owed a slightly higher amount.
The prized estate last traded when it was bought from the founder of the Darling and Co merchant bank, John Darling, in 1980 for $2.8 million.
It was built for Edward Cox, the sixth and youngest son of pioneer William Cox, in the Greek Revival temple style, possibly designed by architect Mortimer Lewis, with amended plans dropping the second storey due to the 1840s agricultural recession.
Fernhill remained in the ownership of the Cox family until 1896, when it sold to the Wright family, of Wright, Heaton and Co, who billed their firm as the most extensive carrying firm in the colony.
The stone house and outbuildings were constructed over four years by 20 stonemasons who were brought in from Ireland.
The buildings are now surrounded by gardens modified in the 1970s by landscape architect Paul Sorensen, during which time the swimming pool was added.
Fernhill has 15 lots totalling 653 hectares, of which 404 hectares form part of the historic Fernhill estate that contains the original 1810 Cox family Crown land grant.
Anderson, the property tycoon whose collection of Regency antiques, old master paintings, French Empire clocks and stuffed animals raised $12 million last year after matrimonial disputation, was made bankrupt in June 2011, but is seeking to have it overturned.
Balanced Securities sought the possession order so that it can sell the property as a mortgagee in possession. The estate was listed earlier this year by Colliers International by receivers appointed by Angas but without any success while Anderson was in attendance.
The swashbuckling Western Australian property developer – whose fortune was estimated at $190 million by BRW in 1989 – has had problems with bankers knocking on his front door before. After the 1990s property downturn the tycoon famously fought to regain occupancy of his Elizabeth Bay residency, the Spanish Mission-style trophy home Boomerang, after his forceful 1993 eviction by financiers’ security guards.
The mostly low-key Anderson who once said, “You don't get a feed in the bush by making a lot of noise as you go through" became wealthy building Coles supermarkets during the 1970s and '80s, after running a desert roadhouse renowned for its lobster rolls.
