Dunara Gardens, Point Piper auction tops weekend sales

Dunara Gardens, Point Piper auction tops weekend sales
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Pricey Point Piper topped weekend auctions results.

The $3.9 million sale occurred shortly after the one level home with south east views over Rose Bay had been passed in at its onsite auction.

The top bid was $3.85 million after bidding was kicked off by the McGrath auctioneer Scott Kennedy-Green with a $3.6 million vendor bid.

There were repeated $50,000 bids from two of what appeared to be three registered bidders when the Dunara Gardens property went to onsite auction through McGrath agent Peter Starr.

It last sold in 2006 at $2.3 million, with 11 Dunara Gardens becoming available for lease in early 2012 at $2,550 a week.

Sydney’s home auction market bounced back at the weekend, recording its best result since May with an initial 77.7% success rate, contrasting last weekend’s 72.7% rate, which was then revised down to 69%, the lowest recorded for over a year.

With dark lacquered timber work throughout, the Point Piper top selling home of interior designer Rosie Fetzer-Hogg sits on a cul-de-sac with height covenants aplenty. It sits off Wentworth Street.

The 740 square metre property attracted no purchasing desire from the neighbours, who bought the original mansion of the estate, Dunara for $1.74 million in 1991.

Dunara, now on its 770 square metres, is credited as the oldest house on Point Piper dating back to 1882, with seven marble fireplaces a selling point when it last sold.

It was the birthplace of the poet and author Dorothea MacKellar, built by her father, Sir Charles MacKellar, a distinguished physician and Member of the Legislative Council and later a senator.

Her mother was the daughter of the wealthy merchant, pastoralist and banker, Thomas Buckland.

In 1919 the family moved to Earlston, in Warrawee and in 1925 to Rosemont, Woollahra, which was sold to the Lloyd Jones family after Lady Mackellar's death in 1933. Sir Charles had died in 1926.

The MacKellar family sold Dunara to Sir Norman Kater in 1919. It was used by the RAAF as a WAAF Officers' mess during World War II. 

The house is a two-storeyed stuccoed brick with a fine cast-iron balcony. It originally had stables and a servants' wing which was separated and converted into other dwellings.

Saturday's offering had been initially listed in late 2011 with $4 million hopes, remaining for private treaty until early 2013.

 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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