He Said/she Said

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It's a real choice for hotel investors currently across the bay in Melbourne.
But Sorrento or Queenscliff?
The Queenscliff Hotel has been relisted for sale, with a private auction scheduled for this Friday, 20 March.
The Continental Hotel at Sorrento has been listed by the Di Pietro family with offers due 16 April.
Our property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok debate the merits of the two hotels on opposite side of The Heads, yet only 12 kilometres apart.
HE SAID:<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/jc-silhouette-5.jpg" alt="jc-silhouette-5" width="130" height="195" style="float: right;">
It's the <a href="https://www.abercrombys.com.au/queenscliff-queenscliff-hotel-16-gellibrand-street-ab2974/" target="_blank">striking 1887 Queen Anne-style building</a> (pictured above) for me. If only for the special occasion memories held from when the late Mietta O'Donnell ran the hotel as a fine dining destination between 1978 and 1983. Admitting it wasn't as regular haunt as her ornate Alfred Place institution in the laneway off Collins Street at the business end of town.
Queenscliff became a significant tourist destination in the late 19th century with holiday-makers taking a two hour paddle steamer journey from Melbourne. 
Andrew Harlock and Tim Derham at Abercromby’s are selling the property on a walk-in, walk-out basis, with initial expectations at $3.5 million plus.
The hotel is still taking guests, but the restaurant served its last meals on Christmas Day, following the death of owner Johann Schuetz who with his wife, Theresa bought the property in 2002.
The 1887 built Queenscliff Hotel on the western tip of Port Phillip bay was designed by Melbourne architects Reed, Henderson &amp; Smart, the same architects responsible for the State Library of Victoria, Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne Trades Hall and a number of Melbourne university buildings.
It was built by NW Frogley in the English Queen Anne style for Martha Nugent and Joseph Goslin, wealthy local citizens at the time.
Heritage documents describe its polygonal tower, with its coned roof and bellcast profile and gables, as a reflection of northern European Renaissance architecture, particularly from countries as such France and the Netherlands.
Ofcourse while I adore limestone bathrooms, a little bit of Tudor-style woodwork and elaborate fretwork, turrets and towers with conical or pyramid-shaped roofs are always of acute interest.
I fell in love with Queen Anne over champers at the first Queen Anne house in Australia, Caerleon in the suburb of Bellevue Hill.
The Schuetz family acquired the property in 2002 from restaurateur Patricia O’Donnell, sister of the late Mietta O'Donnell. Schuetz offered the hotel in 2010 attracting offers close to $4 million.
<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/mb-silhouette-4.jpg" alt="mb-silhouette-4" width="130" height="195" style="float: left;">SHE SAID:
Coming from Sydney, it has to be the limestone Sorrento Contintental Hotel for me. NSW just doesn't see enough limestone or bluestone, just plenty of sandstone.
It was the pioneer thespian and entrepreneur George Coppin who built the mansard-capped hotel in the 1870s, the four storey limestone building <a href="https://www.continentalhotel.com.au/History.htm" target="_blank">The "Conti"</a> (pictured below). Jonathan can have his fusty selection.
<img src="/images/2015/03/11/sorernto-march-11-one.jpg">
The seaside spruiker shipped wealthy Melburnians to the Mornington Peninsula on his paddle steamers, and then put them on his tramway to stay at his Hotel Continental.
I love being close to the golf course.
It had been on the toss of a coin - a choice between Australia and America - that Coppin sailed from Sussex on the Templar, arriving in Sydney in 1843 with his partner, Maria Watkins Burroughs, where he was to perform at the Royal Victoria Theatre on Pitt Street.
Coppin briefly owned the Clown Hotel, directly opposite the theatre, which failed as Sydney's first permanent musical entertainment venue, before he moved south to Melbourne.
The Continental Hotel at Sorrento has been listed for sale by the Di Pietro family with $15 million expectations.
The hotel will be sold with freehold and business with offers due 16 April through Sothebys International agent Rob Curtain, in conjunction with CBRE.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

He Said/She Said: Queenscliff Hotel or Sorrento's Continental? 

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Chinese New Year falls later than usual this year, so the journeys of Asian residents coming to Australia to visit family and friends have only just begun for the year.
No doubt property purchasing will ensue - and with the dollar hovering at around 78 US cents, why wouldn’t it?
Our contrarian commentators, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok, agree that the well established patterns of the Chinese buying property in Australia will continue during 2015, while noting that a buyer from China topped the 2014 residential sale prices in Sydney with the $39 million sale of Point Piper’s Villa Del Mare by Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd.
The Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd paper trail <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/37449-guangzhou-evergrande-chinese-billionaire-xu-jiayin-tipped-as-villa-del-mare-point-piper-buyer&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=I9LjVIy8BIq5uATW-oGABg&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNFcwcLMd3J-LWD48OvgPTB3eHRzZw" target="_blank">led to the Chinese billionaire, </a><a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/37449-guangzhou-evergrande-chinese-billionaire-xu-jiayin-tipped-as-villa-del-mare-point-piper-buyer&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=I9LjVIy8BIq5uATW-oGABg&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNFcwcLMd3J-LWD48OvgPTB3eHRzZw" target="_blank">Xu Jiayin</a>, chairman of Evergrande, an integrated corporation specialised in residential building, cultural tourism, FMCG, agriculture, dairy, livestock farming and sport industry with 460 billion yuan worth of total assets and 80 thousand employees. Sky tracking websites showed that Xu Jaiyin, aged 56, was in Australia around the time of the early October 2014 sale, having arrived with a team of 25 in his private Airbus A319.
It was the second year running a buyer from China purchased the top-priced Sydney property. In 2013 Point Piper’s Altona topped the Sydney house price sale list following its $52 million sale to the Huang family through Alison Coopes.  
While our commentators concur on the continuing trend of Chinese buying Australian real estate, they disagree on the animal name of the 2105 Chinese lunar year beginning on 19 February.
HE SAID:<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/jc-silhouette-5.jpg" alt="jc-silhouette-5" width="130" height="195" style="float: right;">
It’s year of the sheep (which is what Qantas is calling it). Enough said.
<img src="/images/2015/02/18/qantas-feb-18-one.png" alt="">
<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/mb-silhouette-4.jpg" alt="mb-silhouette-4" width="130" height="195" style="float: left;">SHE SAID:
It’s year of the goat. The airline Cathay Pacific sent an email referring to the year of the goat – and they should know.
<img src="/images/2015/02/18/goat%20feb%2018%20one.jpg" alt="">
Many China websites, <a href="https://www.timeoutshanghai.com/feature/1011/Chinese-New-Year-in-Shanghai-2015" target="_blank">including Time Out Shanghai</a>, also refer to the 2015 Spring Festival holiday for Chinese New Year of the Goat.
No doubt Jonathan, the billionaire spotter, envisages a high-faluting merino with ultra fine wool – perhaps of Haddon Rig pedigree. Sometimes he really gets my goat, but on this occasion I won’t let him.
 
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po-LsXgBTHBmX

Year of the Goat/Sheep: He Said/She Said

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<img src="/images/2014/03/28/jc-silhouette-7.jpg" style="float: right;"><img src="/images/2014/03/28/mb-silhouette-6.jpg" style="float: left;">This year’s list of the top 20 Sydney house sales show price consolidation and a clearing of the cobwebs, particularly at Point Piper where the six highest priced properties on the list had languished on the market for years.
Again, Sydney's eastern suburbs proved dominant with 15 of the top 20 sales in 2014, and Mosman made a resurgence with five properties, a significant increase on its 2013 single appearance.  
As always, this Top 20 list is not quite the final version given the secrecy surrounding many of the prices of prestige sales, and no doubt there will be an addition (of about $20 million or higher) next week when much awaited tenders close on the matrimonial <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/property/for-sale/house/nsw/darling-point/?adid=2011651688" target="_blank">Darling Point home of the Rothners</a>. Were this lavish new harbourside residence sell for more than $20.5 million, it will claim eighth spot on the list. 
There is also speculation, first raised by Property Observer last month, that one of the sales was unlikely to proceed to settlement given share market misfortune.
Our commentators, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok, offer their analysis of the Title Tattle annual list highlighting the 10 emerging trends.
<ol>
<li>
A non-waterfront property topped the list for the second time in the past three years. Villa Del Mare (pictured above), a lavish residence set on the elevated high side of Wolseley Road, looks unchallengable in holding <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/36524-oct-7-julia-ross-sells-point-piper-trophy-home&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=jxuJVPyFKceeugSKw4LwDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNEOHh3DAwsFHDTjQucdAcclPAUpdw" target="_blank">this year’s poll position at $39 million</a>. The lavish home was sold by recruitment queen Julia Ross who bought the residence for $21.5 million in 2005 – at the time, it was a record price for a non-waterfront property, and also the second highest price paid for a house in Australia. The last time a non-waterfront property topped the Sydney list was 2012 when a hillside Rose Bay estate sold for $21.5 million.  
</li>
<li>
For the second year running, a buyer from China purchased the top-priced Sydney property. In October, Villa Del Mare was snapped up for $39 million by Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd through Ken Jacobs of Christies and Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker Double Bay. Last month Property Observer <a href="/news/37449-guangzhou-evergrande-chinese-billionaire-xu-jiayin-tipped-as-villa-del-mare-point-piper-buyer" target="_blank">shed light on the China connection</a> of Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd by following a paper trail seemingly leading to the Chinese billionaire, Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande, an integrated corporation specialised in residential building, cultural tourism, FMCG, agriculture, dairy, livestock farming and sport industry with 460 billion yuan worth of total assets and 80,000 employees. Last year’s top priced property was Altona, the Point Piper waterfront bought for $52 million through Alison Coopes. Jonathan, who claims he doesn't have a secret drone, successfully pinpointed the identity of the Villa Del Mare buyer last month. 
</li>
<li>
Piper Piper retains its poll position of Sydney’s most expensive real estate with the prestigious harbourside suburb claiming the six top-priced properties for 2014 - however, each of these properties had been for sale for years. For sale for the longest period was the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/buying/31983-simon-family-point-piper-harbourfront-sale-swings-pendulum-back-to-the-harbourfront&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=1BuJVLjgGIOFuwS13YDoDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhGzL5Q9fWG6xY4F-yrbAGE5fZww" target="_blank">Simon family’s Wolseley Road waterfront residence</a> which traded eight years after its initial listing. Taking out fifth place on the list, the modernist house was bought by Global Renewables CEO, David Singh, and wife Belinda, for $30 million. It once had price hopes of $60 million, reduced to $42 million by 2011, and then $38 million by mid-2013. All eyes will be watching to see how long it takes to secure a buyer for Point Piper’s freshest 2014 prestige listing, the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/36427-harbourfront-110-wolseley-road-point-piper-listed-with-2014-record-hopes&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=ERyJVJz7I9CWuATBzoDwDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNEbc8zZ6bWBOL7zFoBCn8mB7_OmNg" target="_blank">Zamel family’s Wolsely Road waterfront</a> residence for sale through Bart Doff at Laing &amp; Simmons Double Bay. 
</li>
<li>
Just three of the top 20 priced properties were purchased by buyers from China, although sometimes it's a little tricky to ascertain the purchaser origins. Two are waterfront or waterfront reserve residences: 1 Loch Maree Place, Vaucluse at $13 million; and 12 Dumaresq Road, Rose Bay sold for a reported $26 million. Of course, the non-waterfront property bought by a buyer from China is top-priced Villa Del Mare in Point Piper. 
</li>
<li>Vaucluse held steady. For the second year running, it was the second busiest suburb. This year six Vaucluse properties sold - and just off the list (in 22nd)  at $12.75 million was a house bought by <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/37841-westpac-boss-brian-hartzer-s-12-million-vaucluse-home&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=nhyJVMOFMca1uQTBrYLYDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3l2w-K49ix3RfEo8YyI8egs34Xw" target="_blank">incoming Westpac boss Brian Hartzer</a>. There was a reported $16 million for a yet-to-be-finished waterfront residence in Loch Maree Place and Brett Blundy secured almost $18 million. Rag trader Nic Jacenko and his former wife, Doreen, sold to computer company millionaires, Ken and Maree Lowe, who already live in the suburb at a Fitzwilliam Road home bought for $2.1 million in 1995 from the Adler family. </li>
<li>
Mosman bounced back this year with five properties making the list. The suburb’s top 2014 price is $16.3 million for a four-storey trophy home on the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/33292-wine-entrepreneurs-buy-on-mosman-harbourfront-title-tattle-top-20-update&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=bxyJVMOYEtORuASBo4HwDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNGxMb9u6bpn-BgCyRdj-9tXsSxBNw" target="_blank">harbourfront at Curraghbeena Road</a>. Hong Kong-based expat Kate Spanton, wife of Brand Loyalty managing director Philip Spanton, bought the property from Nick Bain, former head of infrastructure at Allco Finance and now chief executive of Graphite Energy, and his wife Katherine. A neighbouring Curraghbeena Road home owned by former Cockatoo Coal executive chairman Mark Lochtenberg remains for sale with $18.5 million-plus hopes. At 18th place on the list is Mosman’s most recent waterfront sale, a Balmoral beachfront property in Wyarine Street<a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/37712-diners-reckon-bookie-tom-waterhouse-behind-11-million-plus-balmoral-beachfront-buy&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=iRyJVNKPDNiKuASa04LwDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNGab_TmYNGx_Aa1dgxj0S1-esY1hw" target="_blank"> reportedly bought by bookmaker Tom Waterhouse</a> for about $12.8 million last month. There's been no paperwork yet, though plenty of other media have chased up the scoop. 
</li>
<li>
Bellevue Hill, Sydney’s most prestigious inland suburb, inched forward this year with three properties on the list compared with two homes last year. <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/29665-bank-of-america-boss-matthew-koder-bouys-bellevue-hill-trophy-home-market&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=UhyJVKrHJ8WMuATv3YDoDw&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNFnZF85eC3tqQeDM8oAPvlwOU-Fxg" target="_blank">Rovello, a trophy estate in Ginaghulla Road</a>, sold for $20.5 million in March to Sarah Henry, wife of engineering company boss Rupert Henry, whose company seemingly has ridden the China wave. The Henry's also recently sold their $7.8 million redundant Bellevue Hill home to Chinese buyers who are seeking $2000 a week rental. 
</li>
<li>
The list’s only significant heritage residence is Rovello in Bellevue Hill.  Designed by Wilson, Neave and Berry, the leading architectural firm of the 1920s and 1930s era, the gracious two-storey residence stands on more than 2,800 square metres of grounds with a tennis court, swimming pool, sweeping lawns and sun-drenched terraces. Set on the highest point of Bellevue Hill, it panoramic northerly views to Manly and The Heads, as well as westerly views to the Harbour Bridge. Centred around a courtyard modelled on the colonnaded Roman atriums, the house has a double-height entrance hall and 675 square metres of living space including stately living, dining and entertaining areas opening onto the north-facing terrace. The superbly proportioned circa 1937 two-storey residence is described by the Australian Heritage Commission as "probably Wilson, Neave and Berry’s finest extant piece of architecture". <a href="/expert-insights/buying/29081-rovello-v-barford-bellevue-trophy-home-showdown" target="_blank">We discussed its merits up against nearby Barford earlier this year</a>. 
</li>
<li>
Watsons Bay missed out in 21st place on this year’s Top 20 list with the sale of the Winning family’s long held waterfront property possibly for $12.75 million to a mining magnate. Its delayed settlement has yet to occur. It last sold for $1.55 million in 1992.  
</li>
<li>The cut off for the top 20 ranking jumped to $12.8 million, up from $11.4 million last year.</li>
</ol>
 The list of the year's top 20 sales is on the next page. Please click below.
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
Top 20 sales of the year (all prices in millions)
<ol>
<li>$39 - Point Piper, 63 Wolseley Road         </li>
<li>$37 - Point Piper, 112 Wolseley Road       </li>
<li>$31* - Point Piper, 106 Wolseley Road      </li>
<li>$30.5* - Point Piper, Wentworth Street      </li>
<li>$30 -  Point Piper, 130 Wolseley Road       </li>
<li>$30* - Point Piper, 60 Wunulla Road     </li>
<li>$26* - Rose Bay, 12 Dumaresq Road     </li>
<li>$20.5 - Bellevue Hill, 12 Ginahgulla Road   </li>
<li>$19 - Bellevue Hill, 17 Carrington Avenue</li>
<li>19* - Vaucluse, 29 Coolong Road </li>
<li>18* - Vaucluse, 8 Wharf Road    </li>
<li>$16.3 - Mosman, 9 Curraghbeena Road        </li>
<li>$16 - Bellevue Hill, 8A Ginahgulla Road   </li>
<li>$16* - Vaucluse, 2 Loch Maree Place</li>
<li>$16* - Mosman, 8 Burran Avenue</li>
<li>$15.6 - Mosman, 21 Carrington Avenue    </li>
<li>$15.45 - Vaucluse, 2a Vaucluse Road      </li>
<li>$14 - Vaucluse, 9 Hillside Avenue</li>
<li>$13 - Vaucluse, 1 Loch Maree Place</li>
<li>$12.8* - Mosman, 4 Wyargine Street</li>
</ol>
*    Sale reported, but not settled 
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Point Piper clears its prestige property listing cobwebs in 2014: He Said/She Said

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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:<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/stories/2013/09/06/jc-silhouette-5.jpg" alt="jc-silhouette-5" width="130" height="195" style="float: right;">
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 <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-south+grafton-118510139" target="_blank">108 Through Street, South Grafton</a> – 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. 
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/12/01/grafton%20dec%201%20two.jpg" alt=""> 
My second choice is out at Copmanhurst (in the foothills of the Gibraltar Range and about 75 kilometres west of Grafton) where<a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-lifestyle-nsw-copmanhurst-7682611" target="_blank"> The Gorge is listed</a> at $3.75 million through LJ Hooker Grafton. 
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/12/01/companhurst%20dec%201%20one.jpg" alt="">
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 – <a href="https://www.nationalregisterofbigtrees.com.au/listing_view.php?listing_id=990"> listed on the National Register of Big Trees</a>.  Some six metres circumference, 30 metres high and a crown of 36 metres.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/12/01/big%20tgree%20dec%201%20one.jpg" alt="">
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/stories/2013/09/06/mb-silhouette-4.jpg" alt="mb-silhouette-4" width="130" height="195" style="float: left;">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 &amp; Gough, as “Sonaisali on Alice” – a confusing misnomer for the renovated residence bears no hint of Fijian style. 
<a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-grafton-118382959" target="_blank">Situated at 39 Alice Street</a>, 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.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/12/01/grafton%20dec%201%20three.jpg" alt="">
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End of jacaranda season offerings at Grafton: He Said/She Said

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For more than a century, Sydney’s Upper North Shore has held an impressive reputation for its stately homes on large blocks of land with established private gardens. 
This week our property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok peer at grand garden estates in leafy avenues of this peculiarly “Australian Arcadia” and discuss the essential requirements for choosing a trophy home in this rarefied area.
HE SAID:<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/jc-silhouette-5.jpg" alt="jc-silhouette-5" width="130" height="195" style="float: right;">
<ul>
<li>
Location is of utmost importance. The upper north shore encompasses suburbs north of Chatswood, south of Hornsby’s northern border and east of the Lane Cove River - but the best estates are on the east side of the Pacific Highway in Roseville, Lindfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra, Warrawee and Wahroonga. 
</li>
<li>The property must have “the house, court, pool package”, a phrase coined by Julia Burns, the legendary Upper North Shore agent who sold prestige properties at record prices from the 1980s heyday until her retirement about five years ago. For a property to be considered prestigious, Burns insisted it have a big home set in beautiful gardens with a full-size tennis court and swimming pool – and I agree with her. </li>
<li>
A significant architect is essential. And the architect’s name must be included in the marketing of a property to show its quality provenance. Among architects known for designing beautiful homes on the Upper North Shore are Howard Joseland, John Brogan, Augustus Aley, F. Glynn Gilling, Hardy Wilson and Walter Liberty Vernon. It’s no secret I admire the Spanish Mission style, but on the Upper North Shore I also appreciate Stockbroker Tudor-style such the house at 1 Springdale Avenue, Killlara designed by architect John Brogan. 
</li>
<li>
My pick of properties on the market is the Pymble home of dentists Richard Medway and Isabel Silva who are hoping to set a suburb record of more than $8 million for their Spanish Mission style residence on Telegraph Road when the marketing campaign closes on Tuesday November 25 through agent Scott Chadwick. 
</li>
</ul>
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/pymble%20nov%2024%20one.jpg" alt="">
Designed by architect Geoffrey Loveridge, the grand 1930s house stands in manicured gardens with a tennis court and pool. It was built during the 1930s for Carpenter Group chairman, R.B. Carpenter, and his wife, Gladys.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/pymble%20nov%2024%20two.jpg" alt="">
The subsequent owners include medico Dr John Drummond, architect Steve Gunns and, most recently, property developer David Blaynie and his wife, Joanne, who sold it a decade ago for around $4.7 million.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/pymble%20nov%2024%20three.jpg" alt="">
I remember when LJ Hooker Pymble’s David Johnson was selling 42 Telegraph Road back in 2004 and successfully advising the then vendor to replace the roof of the home with slate tiles. It cost the vendor more than $150,000, but Johnson suggested it certainly helped achieved the $4.7 million sale price of the 3,389 square metre property.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/pymble%20nov%2024%20four.jpg" alt="">
<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/mb-silhouette-4.jpg" alt="mb-silhouette-4" width="130" height="195" style="float: left;">SHE SAID:
East side of the train line is essential – and not too far east. Be it Killara, Wahroonga, Warrawee, Pymble, Gordon or Roseville, the property must be within easy walking distance of a train station for Mums and Dads who commute to work in the city, and kids travelling to schools.
<ul>
<li>
The house should have at least four bedrooms, as well as huge sitting and dining rooms and a big open-plan kitchen and family living area with easy access to outdoor entertaining/barbecue areas with an outdoor kitchen. 
</li>
<li>While ballrooms and train rooms once were popular with North Shore mansions, these days home theatres and cinema rooms are the go – or a yoga room for mum and her friends. </li>
<li>A huge landscaped garden is de rigeuer – and preferably one designed by Annie Wilkes. While topiary and manicured hedges suit some properties, I prefer rambling gardens. It’s a pity the Upper North Shore doesn’t have any gardens designed by Enda Walling. </li>
<li>The property needs to be close to good primary school given families with young children are predominant buyers for Upper North Shore properties. Burns Road Wahroonga is a fine example of a good east side address, for it has the Bush School and nearby Prouille for Catholic kids. </li>
<li>
Among the best properties for sale, in my view, is “Hazeldean” at 14 Burns Road, Wahroonga. Ticking all the boxes including buxus hedges in the garden, “Hazeldean” has a circa 1898 residence built in the Queen Anne style and updated with an award-winning heritage restoration.  
</li>
</ul>
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/wahroonga%20nov%2024%20six.jpg" alt="">
Described by McGrath selling agents, Phillip Waller and Samuel Lynch, as “presenting unparalleled grandeur and prominence”, it stands in about 3,422 square metres of landscaped gardens with a championship-size tennis court and heated swimming pool.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/wahroonga%20nov%2024%20two.jpg" alt="">
Designed by architect Varney Parkes (the seventh child of politician, Sir Henry Parkes, and his first wife Clarinda), it has six bedrooms, an expensive designer gas kitchen (by Scullery and Holtz), grand formal sitting and dining rooms (with high ornate ceilings and original circa 1890s embossed wallpaper) and self-contained guest accommodation in a separate wing.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/wahroonga%20nov%2024%20three.jpg" alt="">
The property is an easy walk to the train station and village shops as well as Knox and Abbotsleigh schools.
<img src="/images/2014/11/24/wahroonga%20nov%2024%20seven.jpg" alt="">
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The Upper North Shore, Sydney trophy home essentials: He Said/She Said

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Equestrian pursuits are always costly affairs, be it thoroughbred racing, dressage, show jumping, eventing or polo. And pricey ponies were hot topics of conversation during Melbourne’s recent Spring Racing Carnival.
These expensive horse properties always sparked the interest of our property contrarians, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok - particularly after Patinack Farm, the Gold Coast and Hunter Valley horse racing empire headquarters of embattled former mining magnate Nathan Tinkler, <a href="/news/37263-nathan-tinkler-s-hunter-valley-horse-stud-auction-cancelled" target="_blank">failed to attract a buyer at auction last month</a>.
This week Jonathan and Margie look at two other impressive equine properties on the market.   
HE SAID:<img src="/images/2014/03/28/jc-silhouette-7.jpg" style="float: right;">
I still fancy Yallambee Stud, recognised in the thoroughbred industry as one of Victoria's oldest and most successful bloodstock operations. Set 50 kilometres from Melbourne CBD, the 243 hectare property has been breeding champion thoroughbreds for over five decades.
The vendors are the Woodard family, traditionally beef and sheep pastoralists from Skipton in the Western District of Victoria, who shifted their stud operation in 1986 to the Macedon Ranges region, drawn to its volcanic soils, high rainfall, water and proximity to Melbourne.
It was a sensible move with the equine operations designed to suit thoroughbred breeding, rearing youngsters and racehorse spelling. Yallambee Stud, jointly with neighboring Eliza Park Stud, stand two of Australia's most popular, commercial young stallions - God's Own and Magnus.
Expected to fetch about $7 million, Yallambee Stud (pictured below)<a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-mixed+farming-vic-kerrie-7672235" target="_blank"> is listed for sale</a> through Sam Triggs and Jamie Inglis of Inglis Rural Property. 
<img src="/images/2014/11/14/kew%20nov%2014%20one.jpg" alt="">
<img src="/images/2014/03/28/mb-silhouette-6.jpg" style="float: left;">SHE SAID:
Montana Park in Queensland caught my attention due to its huge homestead. Large enough for myself, Jonathan and a host of horsey hangers-on, it is set on 42-hectares of lush land at Maleny - just an hour from the Doomben race track.
<a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-acreage+semi+rural-qld-maleny-105961322" target="_blank">Listed for sale by tender closing December 12</a>, Montan Park (pictured below) is described in its online marketing advertising as “the ultimate horse property without isolation or remoteness…a rare offering in one of Queensland’s most desirable locations”.
Rare indeed – few rural properties have a luxury homestead measuring 1,804 square metres. With views of the Glass House Mountains, this vast abode has umpteen bedrooms and bathrooms including an enormous parents’ retreat with separate his ‘n’ hers marble en suites, a steam room, massage room, opulent dressing rooms and a sitting area overlooks the green rolling hills.
While the Ray White Buderim selling agents, Lew Pottinger and Nathan Nicholl, rave about the “Versace-inspired” style of the main bedroom suite, I would redecorate it for my interior design taste is rather more simplistic. Thank goodness Melissa Penfold is offering e-décor on <a href="https://www.melissapenfold.com" target="_blank">her new website</a> - an online bible of Australia’s best shops and services, making good design accessible to everyone.
Also in the homestead are a feng shui-influenced office/media centre, a cinema room, state-of-the-art kitchen and enormous living, dining and entertainment areas flowing to the garden and resort-style swimming pool. 
But it is the Montana Park horses who are truly pampered in 45 post-and-rail paddocks perfectly positioned around two Olympic-size dressage arenas, a six-horse “ezywalker” and lavish stables.  Horses who prefer music can exercise at night in the covered all-weather arena with designer lighting and an integrated sound system. 
Ideal for dressage workshop clinics, this equine complex also features an amphitheatre and extensive accommodation for riders. Designed to impress international instructors, it has a purpose-built guests suite with a common room, commercial kitchen and large dining area.
Rivalling the homestead in its size and lavish appointments, the stable complex incorporates 10 double-sized broodmare boxes, two stallion boxes, wash bays, a vet room, horse scales, tack room, rug room, feed room (with 1,200 bale capacity and grain silo), plus accommodation and access for large floats and goose neck trailers.
I recall when the stable complex was the showpiece of the previous owners, show jumping couple, David and Pam Courtice, who developed the property from a run-down dairy farm with 100-year-old fencing, pig pens and barbed wire. 
The Courtices’ two-year transformation attracted intense local ‘sticky-beaking’ as mud turned into green paddocks, and impressive timber fencing was erected to define the perimeter of the picture postcard property, known then as Tengarra Park.
The Courtices’ daughter, Sam, was the only professional show jumper in the family. Although, another daughter Chrystal found the Maleny property on the internet after David had been looking for 12 months.
After the property sold to Dean Shannon, and his equine enthusiast wife, Kelly, its name was changed to Montana Park.
If I bought this property I would change the name back to Tengarra Park, and then set up a thoroughbred spelling business given the property has easy road access to racecourses at Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
 <img src="/images/2014/11/14/maleny%20nov%2014%20one.jpg" alt="">
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Equestrian rural property the envy of the nation: He Said/She Said

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Carols playing in supermarkets indicates the countdown to Christmas is in full swing with only seven weeks left until Santa comes down the chimney.
Being so close to Christmas, many vendors are deterred from putting their house on the market, but plenty of buyers are circling at this time.
These include families who are keen to be settled before the start of the next school year in February.
The countdown to Christmas comes with increasing anticipation and anxiety - not just the joyous distractions of the long Christmas to do lists.
The looming holiday deadline plays havoc with the property market, but auctions and deals can be done almost right up to Christmas Eve.
<a href="https://www.bresicwhitney.com.au/buy/17-gipps-street-paddington-10024" target="_blank">The December 20 auctions </a>are beginning to get marketed - and no doubt pre-auction offers will be taken.
Indeed one year in the booming late 1980s, a Double Bay agent secured a Christmas Day sale of a luxury Vaucluse waterfront with a New Zealand buyer.
Our veteran property commentators, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok offer tips for anxious vendors set to list for auction between now and the Christmas break, which is just seven weeks away.
Last year was a cracker of an auction years and just 11 days before Christmas Sydney had its biggest auction day ever with almost 1,000 auctions and then 300 on the Saturday four days before the holiday.
Similarly high numbers in Melbourne where 11 days before Christmas, more than 1,300 auctions were scheduled and it was the third weekend in a row of that number.
HE SAID:<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/jc-silhouette-5.jpg" alt="jc-silhouette-5" width="130" height="195" style="float: right;">
<ul>
<li>Certainly you shouldn't be waiting for a print marketing campaign – advertise your property on the internet immediately, even if the property is billed as a forthcoming 2015 auction. </li>
<li>Choose an experienced local agent who will be pro-active in finding buyers, and then identify the right buyer for your home. Hopefully the agent already knows the likely buyer from their long list of unsuccessful bidders at their recent auctions.  </li>
<li>Offer extended settlement terms to say March 2015 – as this gives buyers time to sell their property during the likely quieter January and February period. </li>
<li>Eliminate clutter. Potential buyers are looking for their dream home – not yours. Festoons of tizzy Christmas decorations can detract from the house, so don’t go overboard this year.  Instead choose a small Christmas tree and subtle decorations. </li>
<li>Auction clearance rates normally trend downwards through December, but last year the market was quite robust – however it would be a folly to put all your hopes on a 20 December auction outcome.</li>
</ul>
<img src="/images/stories/2013/09/06/mb-silhouette-4.jpg" alt="mb-silhouette-4" width="130" height="195" style="float: left;">SHE SAID:
Commission a building and pest report to be made available to potential buyers – not only will it expedite things, but buyers will also see you have nothing to hide. And it could also identify a problem that may to need to be rectified.
<ul>
<li>A quick cosmetic clean-up can do wonders – get the men around the house to steam-clean the carpets, wash the windows, re-grout bathroom tiles, touch up paintwork, and high pressure hose outside areas. </li>
<li>Be sensible about pricing your property - don’t be greedy. Listen to your agent’s market feedback about the value of your home so you can make an informed decision about its worth in the current market based on all the recent comparable sales. </li>
<li>Meanwhile don't forget a quick declutter, along with styling and professional photographs which will present your property in its best light. If pushed engage a stylist to declutter and do an interior makeover. Certainly hire a professional photographer to take four to six pictures of your property for internet advertisements. </li>
<li>Best be an accommodating vendor and allow inspections outside scheduled times, for this could clinch a sale with time-poor Mums and Dads caught up in the Christmas rush of children’s’ concerts and office parties.</li>
</ul>
Good luck!
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Seven weeks to Christmas: He Said/She Said's selling tips for the pre-holiday market

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A designer revival of the backyard dunny?
The enduring presence of a turn of the century brick outhouse in the Sydney suburb of Balmain piqued the interest of our property contrarians, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok.
Especially as this brick outhouse stands in the backyard behind a Federation house recently stylishly redesigned by SJB Architects. Over $3 million is expected at its 11 October auction.
While the house is described by the <a href="https://www.belleproperty.com/41P0196" target="_blank">listing agent Monique Dower at Belle Property</a> as striking “a perfect balance between classical architecture and cutting-edge design”, the old thunderbox harks back to the days of previous generations when homes didn’t have indoor flushable toilets. 
Viewed on Google Earth, the dunny is connected to an adjoining building next door, so perhaps its preservation was as much about the neighbourhood harmony.
This week Jonathan and Margie discuss the merits of the rare maintenance of the once ubiquitous building at the bottom of the backyard. 
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/03/28/jc-silhouette-7.jpg" style="line-height: 1.3em; float: right;">HE SAID:
I'd previously reported on<a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/30128-last-of-the-outside-paddington-dunes" target="_blank"> the demise of the backyard dunny</a>. But that was in Sydney's east.
I think this updated Balmain dunny is inspired – it is certainly more functional, and far less sexist, than a man’s shed.
With a garden hose hanging off the outside wall, you could pop inside when nature calls while watering the lawn, or indeed, while turning sausages on the barbecue conveniently placed against the adjacent fence.
Would have loved it if they went with a Philippe Starck bowl, but see it's a Geberit instead.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/03/28/mb-silhouette-6.jpg" style="float: left;">
SHE SAID:
I’m with Jonathan, this dunny is a winner. Highly practical, it is ideally placed metres from the plunge pool, so dripping wet residents and their guests don’t need to schlep through the house to the powder room inside. Also, it solves the hideous issue of children pissing in pools (a personal bugbear of mine) – no excuses for kids not using the loo here.
If I owned this dunny, I’d add to its authenticity by growing a choko vine over the ripple iron roof, and placing a scary looking plastic spider near the toilet bowl – for I grew up in a house with an outdoor dunny (albeit a flushable one) where spiders resided alongside my father’s garden tools. 
Before modern suburban sewerage systems were built, dunnies were designed for practicality. In the good old days before water flushable toilets, outhouses with cans were placed at a distance from the house for reasons of smell and hygience. And often they were set on a property’s rear boundary with lane access for the removal of waste. 
Collected at night, once of twice a week by men with a horse and cart hired by the local council, the waste was euphemistically referred to as ‘night soil’ – hence the term ‘night soil’ lane was coined. In inner city suburbs these days, former ‘night soil’ lanes have morphed to provide easy car access to a garage, or a pedestrian thoroughfare if the lane is narrow.
Of course the term - as flat as a shit carter's hat - still lives on with surf reports. 
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The designer revival of a backyard dunny? He Said/She Said 

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Sydney's top two bar barons, Justin Hemmes and Fraser Short, have really put the foot on the excelerator in their recent expansionary ways.
Providing entertaining, drinking and eating spaces for the cashed-up young folk is a cut-throat business as the darkened, dingy meat tray raffle entertainment spaces of the past turn glamorous alfresco, especially in coastal locations.
Just last week Fraser Short teamed up again with the Laundy family to secure <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/investing/35470-sept-9-laundy-short-partnership-secure-iconic-mona-vale-norrthies-pubs" target="_blank">the iconic Northies and Mona Vale hotels</a>.
Justin Hemmes recently transformed the Coogee Beach Palace Hotel, seemingly acquired on delayed settlement terms.
It has certainly been a bull market for the industry with a mix of cool bars and restaurants openings.
Justin Hemmes, who assumed the entrepreneurial mantle from his parents has had the chic watering holes Establishment, Hemmesphere, Tank Night Club, Angel Place, The Slip Inn over the years. Then he undertook the multimillion-dollar Ivy project on George Street.
Fraser Short and then business partner John Duncan set up Cargo Bar at King Street Wharf just in time for the 2000 Olympics - a coup for the pair.
The old schoolmates then opened Bungalow 8, further down the wharf and The Loft cocktail bar.
After opening the Morrison with Sean Connolly in the kitchen, Short then partnered with Arthur Laundy on the Watsons Bay Hotel which has since been refubished and successfully relaunched.
The publican-restaurateurs will soon go head to head in Manly. Justin Hemmes has opened Papi Chulo at the wharf and Short has a separate 350-seat Japanese rock'n'roll bar in the beachside suburb. Short's Daniel-san, the moniker a homage to The Karate Kid film franchise, and the rooftop Dojo at Daniel-san, are the Manly Pacific hotel, set to open next month.
Our property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok takes sides in tribal Sydney's mostly hospitable battle of the bar tsars. 
HE SAID:<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/03/28/jc-silhouette-7.jpg" style="float: right;">
I am a huge fan of Justin Hemmes, having known the family for three decades. Not that it helped when trying to get into the ever popular eatery, Mr Wong where the suggested wait was a hour last Wednesday night! Justin gets his love of entrepreneurial property ventures from his inspiring father, Mr John and mother, Merivale. He also gets plenty of design advice from his sister, Bettina.
I've meet Fraser just the once, and he struck me as a blokey live-wire as he entertained his guests out at Watsons Bay one afternoon. His business partner, Arthur Laundy was there too, and he's old-time salt of the earth amid the modern hoteling era. Ofcourse Fraser is the son of 1970s wine bar scene legend, Warwick Short who ran one of the most successful long running wine bars from some 25 years from 1969, the Stoned Crow at Crows Nest.
It all began big time for Fraser Short around the time of the Sydney Olympics with his then burgeoning Keystone Hospitality business, which included the hip venues Cargo Bar, then Bungalow 8. I missed the Fringe Bar, but certainly took in the Gazebo Wine Bar which has been getting a recent refurb. Short certainly hasn't wasted any time building a new empire since splitting with Keystone Hospitality.
Interesting that the print media mentions of Fraser total in the low 100's since his first mention, but 1000's for Justin.  
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2014/03/28/mb-silhouette-6.jpg" style="float: left;">
SHE SAID:
Hands down, it’s Fraser Short for me. I love what he’s done at the Watsons Bay pub with its spectacular views and harbourside setting that is second to none.  
Admittedly, I have a soft spot for Wato, where as a tiny child it was a treat for our family to to eat fish ‘n’ chips at the Ozone Café (now Doyle’s restaurant) on Friday nights.  
While Short has done wonders with the Wato pub, he has retained the intrinsic simplicity of the original seaside fishing village in its design. Without any pretentions to latest fads in other parts of the world, it is modern and appropriate.
Another winning feature is the food of chef Pete Evans who heads up the hotel’s catering and events.
On a vast harbour beach front site, this landmark hotel complex has 32 accommodation rooms, a public bar and a restaurant, as well as several function rooms including the Sunset Room. One of Sydney’s best wedding venues, The Sunset Room was designed by architect Jeremy Bull (of Alexander and Co) who worked with Short on the revival of his city pub, The Morrison Bar and Oyster Room in George Street. 
I have no doubt Short and his team will bring their vision and design flair to Northies and the Mona Vale pub. Apparently Fraser Short gained a degree in interior design before becoming a hotelier.
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Fraser Short v Justin Hemmes in battle of the bar tsars: He Said/She Said

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After 27 years of opening private gardens to the public, Open Gardens Australia has announced that its present season would be its last.
Open Gardens Australia started in Victoria before going interstate and has been behind the opening of almost 20,000 private gardens across Australia to the public.
In its heyday more than 800 gardens opened annually, but just under 500 gardens will be open this season.
Only last week <a href="/expert-insights/gardens-exteriors/34913-trophy-home-gardens-make-their-stamp-with-australia-post" target="_blank">Australia Post announced</a> that it would be featuring five beautiful private gardens from Open Gardens Australia in a new stamp issue.
<img src="/images/2014/09/05/stamps-sept-5-two.jpg" alt=""><img src="/images/2014/09/05/stamps-sept-5-one.jpg" alt="">
There were five domestic base rate (70c) stamps and products available, although the <a href="https://shop.auspost.com.au/product/open-gardens-postcard-set-1807212" target="_blank">website indicates</a> that they are currently out of stock.
<img src="/images/2014/09/05/stamps%20sept%205%20four.jpg" alt="">
Our shocked and saddened property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok have been to many of them - certainly never taking unauthorised plant samples - and now nominate their favourite garden tour.
HE SAID:
<img src="/images/2014/03/28/jc-silhouette-7.jpg" style="float: right;">
It has to be Retford Park, established by Samuel Hordern in 1887.
James Fairfax now is the keeper of the English park and garden that features magnificent trees, mature shrubberies and hedged garden rooms, all sustainably managed using organic principles. 
Rhododendrons and azaleas at their peak in October. Century old bunya bunyas, redwoods and oaks impressed. I recall the more freshly planted Wollemi pines.
There's an impressive collection of classical and contemporary sculptures and that marvelled Guilford Bell swimming pool pavilion.
One later occasion on a private visit, Jeffrey Smart was there strolling the grounds. Sadly no painting ever emerged to immortalise the pavilion.
Of course as I've previously reported, the philanthropic former newspaperman <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/21152-friday-march-1-upper-right-title-tattle-&amp;sa=U&amp;ei=R0MJVJazKs26uATRpoHQDQ&amp;ved=0CAYQFjAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;usg=AFQjCNGdUseHvIE4wPJfkbEUuIXqZTknew" target="_blank">James Fairfax intends to gift his historic Retford Park estate</a> in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Its envisaged the Italianate 1887 residence will sit within a protected 32-hectare heritage curtilage.
It will be preserved in perpetuity for the community with some funds from the neighbouring prestige residential development being directed into a trust which will pay for the long-term upkeep of the home and gardens.
The gifting won't take place until subdivision sales take place. I notice <a href="https://landforsalebowral.com.au" target="_blank">they are progressing quite well</a>.
The Old South Road property, which sits on the southern edge of Bowral’s rapidly suburban expansion, has long sat on about 100 hectares including the land now zoned for subdivision.
<img src="/images/stories/2013/03/retfordmarch1one.jpg" alt="retfordmarch1one" width="470" height="468">
Under the proposal, the 29-hectare eastern part of the estate has been subdivided into rural-inspired lots ranging from 8,000 square metres to four hectares lots.
The philanthropic former chairman of the ailing publishing company that bears his family name, first advised he would bequeath Retford Park for the benefit of the public in an article written by me in 2009 in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was his idea for at least three decades.
Retford Park has been the country home of the arts patron since he paid £15,000 in 1964 for it on a then four-hectare holding.
<img src="/images/stories/2013/03/retfordmarch1two.jpg" alt="retfordmarch1two" width="470" height="468">
Retford Park, with an Italianate revival-style mansion, dates back to the 1880s when it was the summer retreat of the retailing Hordern family. 
"I think Retford Park is an important part of the heritage of the Wingecarribee Shire area and provision has been made in my will for the house and the immediate surrounding land, including the garden, to be left in trust to be viewed by future generations," Mr Fairfax told me in 2009.
Listed on the register of the national estate since 1980, Retford Park takes its name from the village in Nottinghamshire, the northern England town from where Anthony and Ann Hordern immigrated in 1825.
The grounds have many heritage oaks, an enduring association with the Hordern's retailing business, whose emblem was an oak tree under which were the words: "While I live, I'll grow".
<img src="/images/stories/2013/03/retfordmarch1three.jpg" alt="retfordmarch1three" width="470" height="310">
It was first sold after Anthony's great-grandson, Sir Samuel Hordern, died in 1956, leaving an estate of $279,000. It was briefly owned by the cattle stud operator King Ranch (Australia), of which Edwina Hordern's husband, Peter Baillieu, was managing director.
In his 1991 book, Regards to Broadway, Fairfax recollected he'd had no plans to buy a country house. "But chatting to Peter Baillieu at a cocktail party in December 1963, I learned that Retford Park and 10 acres [four hectares] of land were to be sold." 
It occurred to James that it might be a suitable place for his mother to stay on her annual six month visits from England.
Fairfax, the eldest son of the late Sir Warwick Fairfax and his first wife, Betty Wilson, then set about regularly buying adjoining rural land.
He also set about enlivening the house. 
"When my offer of £15,000 for the house and 10 acres with an option to buy another 10 in three years was accepted, I went into the usual ‘What on earth have I taken on?’ syndrome, but soon recovered as I got involved in the redecoration which was being done by Leslie Walford," he recalled to Sue Rosen in 2011.
"Some six months later, in the winter of 1964, I commissioned Donald Friend to paint a mural in the dining room," he said.
Leslie Walford, who died earlier this year, said in a 2011 interview with Rosen that he recalled flying up to Mittagong with James to inspect the house.
His first impressions of it was "the garden choking the house".
"The house was a sort of cow-pat colour, a very unappealing colour. It had thick walls and narrow long slit windows and a tower, a rectangular piece of work with lots of frilly balconies, cast-iron lace and a pretty porte cochere. It had some delicate prettiness added to the strength of the architecture … it was a wonderful looking house."
Colour photos courtesy of <a href="https://www.highlifemagazine.com.au/" target="_blank">Highlife Magazine</a>, which reports on life in the Southern Highlands of Australia.
Margie Blok has her say on the next page. Please click below.
 
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
<img src="/images/2014/03/28/mb-silhouette-6.jpg" style="float: left;">
SHE SAID:
It’s Markdale for me. Acknowledged as one of the great country gardens of Australia, this magnificent garden was part of the Australia’s Open Garden Scheme for many years.
The garden surrounds the homestead of Markdale, a 6,000 acre rural property at Binda, a tiny hamlet near Crookwell in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Owned by the Ashton family for three generations, the garden began during the 1920s and was re-designed in 1949 by Edna Walling, one of Australia’s most influential landscape designers. 
<img src="/images/2014/09/05/markdale%20sept%205%20one.jpg" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Markdale Homestead. Photo: Danny Kildare. Source: <a href="https://www.markdale.com/" target="_blank">Markdale.com</a>.
The award-winning five-acre garden is featured in many books and magazines on Australian gardening. Extensively rejuvenated in recent years, it has a wealth of beautiful features including a long pergola of blue and white wisteria, dry stone walls, dozens of specimen trees, sweeping lawns and a beautiful lake with a Chinese bridge. 
Under the Ashton family’s guidance, the garden retains its strong influence of Walling’s design and plantings. It remains substantially as she planned it - sweeping lawns merging with mown paddock, and informal curved paths leading the eye into hidden depths of the garden and then out to the hills beyond.
During her career Walling’s style changed very little, yet each of her garden designs is individual. One of her signatures is the use of stone in low fences, paths and steps to give architectural structure to a garden, and then softening it with dense planting. Her design principles also include creating unity between the garden and the house, while working with the existing landscape and existing features including slopes and trees. 
At Markdale, Walling’s design took advantage of the glorious natural scenery of paddocks and hills. Framing the garden without obscuring the beautiful views to the hills are magnificent trees including golden elms, golden ash and claret ash, silver birch, pinoaks, hawthorns, aspens, spireas, viburnums and native eucalypts.
At the same time Walling was working on the garden, the Ashtons commissioned architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson to redesign the homestead. This unique partnership of Walling and Wilkinson has never been repeated. 
<img src="/images/2014/09/05/markdale%20sept%205%20three.jpg" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Source: <a href="https://www.markdale.com/" target="_blank">Markdale.com</a>.
It was Geoff Ashton (one of four sons of James Ashton who built the original homestead) and his wife, Janet, who hired Walling and Wilkinson. For the past three decades, their son, also named Geoff, and his wife Mary, have maintained the garden, homestead and property.
They have thought about selling it on and off over the past decade, and I know would simply love for a buyer to emerge who has a passion for the property.
Although Walling’s outline of the garden has changed little, the existing beds have been replanted and developed under the skillful guidance of Mary Ashton. She and her husband took the reins at Markdale in 1983 during one of the worst droughts in recorded history. Sadly, many plants in the garden died during that drought.
Faced with the enormous task of restoring the Markdale garden, Mary extensively read and researched Walling’s methods and principles to gain insight into her original intent for its design. 
Mary took a careful and considered approach to the garden before developing layers of thick planting in beds and borders beside the stone pathways leading to various garden areas which provide a different view from each direction. 
<img src="/images/2014/09/05/markdale%20sept%205%20two.jpg" alt="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Source: <a href="https://www.markdale.com/" target="_blank">Markdale.com</a>.
But the Markdale garden is as much about the use of space and architecture as it is about planting. One of its focal points is the lake, and Walling was justifiably proud of its design. 
Among documents held in the Edna Walling Collection, of the La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection at State Library of Victoria, is a letter written by Walling to Miss Mervyn Davis that describes her inspiration for the Markdale lake. 
Dated 7 June 1965, Walling’s letter reads: “Dear Mervyn,Re “Markdale”... The best thing I did there was to deal with the erosion in the paddock over which I was taken for a walk on Sunday morning. It was within view of the living room window and when Mrs Ashton told me of their plan to build a series of ... concrete barriers right down the deep ... It seemed to me a pretty poor idea. "Why not dam it back and have a lake" I sez!”
About two and a half hours drive from Sydney, Markdale is a must see for people with a passion for gardens.
And at the property,<a href="https://www.markdale.com" target="_blank"> the Ashton family offer s</a><a href="https://www.markdale.com" target="_blank">elf-catered bed and breakfast accommodation</a> for up to 24 people in two original 1850s stone houses and shearers quarters.
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