Ascham School snaps up Darling Point neighbour
Highlighting the trend of wealthy private schools buying up their neighbours, the 1911 Darling Point mansion Duntrim, which was expected to fetch more than $15 million, has been sold to neighbour Ascham School for $12.25 million.
The 4500-square-metre Darling Point Road property in Sydney’s inner eastern suburbs was listed under instructions from the former NSW Labor state government through Colliers agents Guillaume Volz and Robert McCuaig.
“We believe this site will be the key that unlocks the school so we continue to offer our students the best possible education and school experience,” Diane Grady, chairwoman of the Ascham council of governors says.
“This is an important step in our long-term strategic planning.”
After necessary renovations the school plans to use the existing three buildings to expand its residential boarding facilities.
The school also plans to build classrooms on the site to enhance its science facilities.
Website schoolschoice.com.au suggests Ascham has 1000 students with 100 boarding places.
Now occupying about 3.7 hectares, Ascham, one of the oldest girls’ schools in Australia, was founded by Miss Marie Wallis in 1886 with nine pupils in a Marathon Avenue, Darling Point terrace.
Miss Wallis named the school after Roger Ascham, tutor to Queen Elizabeth I.
The school moved to its current location in 1909 with the purchase of the two-storey Victorian Italianate 1870s house Glenrock, which came with a Moreton Bay fig tree, now thought to be more than 150 years old.
The school’s website suggests the tree embodies the school’s continuity and growth, with Ascham appreciative of the contributions of all who worked toward the school’s development during the past 125 years.
“Such a unique and large parcel of land in a prestigious eastern suburbs location provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” McCuaig said on the Duntrims listing.
“The proposed heritage listing would make it a significant challenge to secure buyer interest.”
The NSW Department of Health, which housed a renal dialysis unit at the arts and crafts-style mansion, bowed to public pressure in November 2010, withdrawing demolition plans that would have maximised its value.
Engaging Urbis heritage consultant Stephen Davies, Ascham School was the major opponent to the demolition of Duntrim when it came before Woollahra Council’s consideration.
The house, built for hardware merchant William Macpherson, was a private home until Sydney Hospital began using it as a nurses home in 1954.
In 1989 then Liberal Government Minister for Health Peter Collins included Duntrim in a long list of departmental property that he was seeking to sell, with funds invested in building new hospitals and health facilities.
Ascham has previously conserved and adapted for school residential use the Yeomerry residence in nearby St Marks Road and Duntrims architect Maurice Halligan designed another house within the school grounds, Raine, now the junior boarding facility.
Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore), heads the list of schools on the recent acquisition trail.
It offered the $35.2 million winning bid for the 2.65-hectare Graythwaite site in North Sydney in 2009, which took the portfolio of the wealthy private school to around 86 different titles.
Shore had bought 12 properties in the prior decade around its 5.65-hectare campus near North Sydney's business district and nine hectares of playing fields in Northbridge.
Other well-heeled private schools that have spent up on property include The Scots College, which bought a house in Bellevue Hill for $4.1 million in 2008.
Newington College spent $5.2 million on the Braeside Anglican Hospital site after the $3.51 million purchase in 2007 of the Concordia Club site on Stanmore Road.
Ascham’s purchase was overseen by the school board’s treasurer Steve Harker, the chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley Australia.
After graduating from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Law, Mr Harker was a research officer for the Federated Ironworkers Association of Australia from 1979-1983 and was then a research officer with the Reserve Bank of Australia.
