Billionaire Blair Parry-Okeden buys a Burradoo cottage, and adds a $10,136 disused road to her Scone farm: Title Tattle
The latest Forbes billionaires' rich list trumpeted Gina Rinehart as Australia's richest person, ranked the 29th richest in the world with a $US18 billion ($A17.1 billion) wealth. But sitting without attention in 157th place with an estimated $US6.2 billion wealth was the Scone farmer Blair Parry-Okeden. Despite her American citizenship she’s still buying property Down Under – her most recent acquisition was a $575,000 cottage in Burradoo in the NSW Southern Highlands. The purchase comes up on official LTO records, which trace back to its auction through Century 21 Mittagong. Like the Rineharts, who have a Mosman holding, Parry-Okeden also keeps a Mosman bolthole, which cost $750,000 in 1991.
In the billionaire stakes she actually ranks ahead of James Packer, Andrew Forrest and Frank Lowy, although the newcomer to list Ivan Glasenberg sits higher in 125th place. Since the death of her mother, Barbara Cox Anthony, Parry-Okeden and her brother, James Cox Kennedy, shared an inheritance derived from media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, which owns dozens of daily newspapers, radio stations and television stations across the United States.
Since the early 1970s Anthony amassed an impressive portfolio of pastoral land holdings in NSW. Title Tattle seems to recall that Winderadeen was her first Australian purchase in 1971 for $110,000. It is now a quarterhorse stud just north of Canberra at Collector. In 1994 she doubled the size of her Wagga Wagga district holdings with a $4.6 million 4,500-hectare Borambola Park purchase. One of her last acquisitions was Oura station, bought in 1997 for the loose change sum of $2.5 million, next to her Eringoarrah property. There is a $2 million private bridge built across the Murrumbidgee that links the farms on both sides.
Parry-Okeden married one of the sons of the rural establishment, Simon Parry-Okeden, but they are now divorced. Unlike Australia's media heirs James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch, their two sons Andrew, 32, and Henry, 30, who both have agricultural science degrees, successfully steer clear of the public gaze. Parry-Okeden’s been inactive in buying up rural land in recent times, although last year she spent $10,136 on a disused Scone road neighbouring her Scone farm, Rockview. She bought the road from the NSW government.
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Rose Porteous has listed her redundant Toorak abode (pictured above and below). The Perth socialite’s inviting offers on the Irving Road house she bought for $4.75 million in 2007.
It was briefly listed in 2010 through Greg Herman, then of RT Edgar, who had the three-bedroom house with $6 million hopes. The house with double-height entrance hall has been listed with Phillip French at RT Edgar who puts it to March 31 auction. Its sale will draw the curtain on Porteous's plentiful Nonda Katsalidis plays which have filled the city's society columns for much of the past decade.
Prominent horse owner and breeder Frank Tagg, who made his money from McDonald's franchises, has listed his Rose Bay residence, Lynton. The Edwardian-era Kent Road Bay residence (pictured above) was last traded at $8 million when sold by the Tasmanian-bound property developer Piers Dawson-Damer and his wife, Kim. Tagg, the former western suburbs first-grade footballer who made his big name from his part-ownership of the stallion prospect Haradasun, bought the 1912 house on 1,296 square metres with his wife, Sally in 2007. It’s listed with Alison Coopes, who’s taking offers until March 27. Title Tattle recalls the Taggs had been looking for something better suited for their children than their CBD penthouse, which still remains unsold. Back in 2003 it was expected to bring more than $11 million, then in 2007 more than $8 million was tipped and about the same on its 2009 listing. Sitting high above the Myer retail development, in Tower Apartments, the 35th-floor 640-square-metre Market Street penthouse was bought in 2000 for $4.5 million.
Retired car dealer Ray Harris and his wife, Robyn, an interior designer, have sold their whole-floor Villard, Potts Point, apartment for about $6,625,000. The three-bedroom Macleay Street apartment – with about 350 square metres, including indoor-outdoor balcony space – has been relisted in February through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox from Richardson and Wrench Elizabeth Bay. It last traded in 2006 when bought for $7.38 million, with offers above $8 million initially sought in 2010, but this was amended to $6.5 million since the penthouse was sold recently to Lizanne Knights, the wife of the director of local private-equity group Ironbridge and Sydney Dance Company chairman Julian Knights for $6.17 million. The Knightses’ whole-floor unit had previously traded for $7.4 million in 2008. It’s a five-bedroom, sixth-floor unit, with 280 square metres of internal space plus 50-square-metre terrace, and was a combination of two units. The Harrises sold given their purchase of the 1870 Elizabeth Bay mansion Ashton for $10.75 million.
Glenelg (pictured above), the Mittagong retreat of Point Piper's Wertheimer family, has been listed for March 29 auction through Richardson and Wrench Bowral agent Michael Maloney. Architects Engelen Moore designed the three-bedroom farmhouse and entertainment barn space about eight years ago for the 18-hectare property on Range Road. It was listed with $5.5 million plus hopes back in 2010, but now with reduced expectations. Glenelg comes with original dairy bales, tennis court and pavilion, croquet lawn, spa and soccer pitch. There are also Harry Seidler plans for its main residence.
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Former freight tycoon Gregory Poche and Kay van Norton have relisted the lavishly imposing Bayview residence La Joie de Vivre (pictured above and below). The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom house sits on a 4,091-square-metre Minkara Road hillside holding with Pittwater views. The residence was built for Beirut industrialist Agob Dellalian, replete with fine finishes such as 24-carat gold filigree balustrades. Billed as the ultimate entertainment venue for glamorous gala occasions, its entrance is via the semicircular drive and grand foyer. It has a commercial-grade kitchen and, on its sandstone terrace, a commercial-style wet bar.
The grounds come with a heated pool and spa, sauna, gymnasium and tennis court with pavilion. It last sold for $10 million in 2003 and when listed in 2010 Title Tattle recalls it came with suggestions it was likely to fall short of a double-digit sale price. But maybe a Texan who can’t find what he wants in Manly might offer over the odds this time. Poche and van Norton spent $11 million in 2009 buying a vacant Manly harbourfront site on which they are building their own dream home. The philanthropic Poche, whose net worth was put at $800 million in the BRW Rich List in May, sold his freight logistics company, Star Track Express, to Qantas for $750 million in 2003. Poche left school at 14 and, after various jobs, joined TNT as the company's national marketing manager in 1970.
It was five years ago when Barry Suckling, managing director of the National Builders Group, put his English-style 1940s Brighton home on the market as Suckling and wife Jo-anne looked to downsize. They secured $2.7 million and eventually bought something bigger, Otley (pictured above), a landmark Italianate Victorian residence with the grandest of three-storey towers set on a Clive Street 1,658-square-metre block with botanic gardens and pool. Otley has been listed for March 31 auction through James Redfern and Kate Strickland at Marshall White with plans to move closer to the city. More than $2.5 million is tipped.
Ear, nose and throat surgeon Glen Croxson and wife Trish have listed their Mosman merchant mansion, Lairdwell (pictured above), through Gotch Real Estate. It was last traded in 1995 when bought from McIntosh stockbroker Peter Meurer for $1,275,000. With four bedrooms plus study, the Federation home sits on an 894-square-metre Prince Albert Street block. The street name came from the Scottish emigrant James King, who took up the largest single land grant in Mosman, 150 acres (61 hectares), which was initially subdivided in 1853.
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Jason Johnson, managing partner of head hunter firm Johnson Executive, and his wife, Kirsten, are selling their four-bedroom, four-bathroom North Curl Curl, Sydney house (pictured above). The four-level Ian Avenue residence comes with a 12-metre saltwater solar heated pool, cabana and steam room. Peter Mosedale of Raine and Horne Dee Why has the $5.95 million listing, with the couple looking for their next property project. They paid $2.1 million for the 907-square-metre block in 2005 and then had Will Fung and Tina Engelen undertake its architectural design.
Melbourne football legend Robert Flower and wife, Sheree, have sold their Balwyn abode (pictured above) with its price undisclosed, having had it listed with $2.2 million-plus hopes through RT Edgar agent Phillip French. After making his debut in 1973, Flower played 272 games at the club and captained the team from 1981 to 1987. Flower is a director if Sports Education and Development Australia, which was established in 2006 as a provider of senior secondary education and training in partnership with schools.
Radio personality Barry Bissell, who hosted Take 40 Australia for 20 years, sold his ground-floor Prahran apartment. The voice of FOX FM for 20 years hasn’t revealed the sale price of the 1928 two-bedroom gracious apartment. But Kay and Burton’s Scott Patterson and Chris Alcock had expectations for an $800,000-plus sale. It cost $365,000 in 1998.
Title Tattle aims to tell readers first - if not before its happened – so the word from Woollahra is that onetime record holder, the 1870s Etham, has been sold on the quiet. The Victorian Regency-style house with tennis court on its 1,520-square-metre holding was last sold in 2006 at $9 million, having been renovated after selling at $5.15 million in 2004. The latest sale was apparently secured through McGrath agent Ben Collier, although he's not included it in his publicly available list of sales. So no idea on its resale price - but it was never going to match its last sale price or the Woollahra record - when sold in recent weeks by the Roulstone family.
And don't say that Title Tattle told you but David Hickie, the former Sydney Morning Herald editor in chief, has sold his Mosman house for $2.8 million, having paid $3.2 million in 2009. His Gadfly publishing business hit hard times during the interim. The Cross Street, Mosman, house had represented a trade down from his $4.5 million Cremorne abode, which got sold in 2009. The Bertha Road Cremorne house had been bought in 1993 for $1.1 million shortly after his surprise appointment as the editor in chief of the SMH.
