Six NSW pedigree rural properties with Melbourne Cup-winning form
The Melbourne Cup is not all about Melbourne, with several landmark properties having pedigree links to the big event. Indeed Archer, the cup’s first winner in 1861, called NSW home. Here are six NSW rural properties that hold a bit of Cup history.
1. Baroona, Whittingham
Baroona (pictured above), the striking High Victorian residence at Whittingham, near Singleton, is a 26-room house with observation tower. It stables, designed in the 1880s by architect John Horbury Hunt, stabled two-time Melbourne Cup winner Peter Pan. The marketing suggested the Victorian gothic stable block (pictured below) was the birthplace and final resting place of Peter Pan, who was born in 1929 and died in 1941.
Baroona was known as Rosemount when the initial house was built by pastoralist John Lanarch in 1829. It expanded into a home of 1,115 square metres with a Benjamin Backhouse design after it was bought in 1869 by Albert Dangar, the son of Henry Dangar, the government surveyor. The spiral staircase and tower were designed by architect Frederick Menkens in the 1890s. The upstairs main suite opening to the veranda has a sitting and dressing room and en suite built in 1920 when the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, was a visitor. Baroona sits on 33 hectares with Mudie Creek running through the property, set about 20 kilometres from the Hunter vineyards. It last sold through Alan Jurd at Jurd's Real Estate Cessnock in conjunction with Max Bailey First National, when listed with $3 million-plus hopes earlier this year.
2. Camelot, Narellan
Narellan’s fairytale-like mansion Camelot (pictured above) has pedigree Melbourne Cup links. The three-storey 1888 house, originally known as Kirkham, was built for the Hon James White, the grand-uncle of author Patrick White. White was cashed up from his winnings from Chester, his racehorse, which had 19 wins – including the 1877 Melbourne Cup and VRC Derby – from 29 starts. Camelot got its name when Mrs Frances Faithful-Anderson bought the Kirkham estate in 1900. It seems that on seeing the property, she was reminded of the opening verse of Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott. Complemented by a beehive-shaped smoke house, an octagonal hen house and large stable block, the six-bedroom mansion was described by arts patron Leo Schofield as the best house John Horbury Hunt ever designed.
3. Terrara House, Terrara
Terrara House (pictured above) was the South Coast home of the legendary dual Melbourne Cup winner Archer, under Etienne de Mestre's stabling. Approached by a long driveway of English elms, the seven-bedroom house, four kilometres from Nowra, comes with stables, tennis court, swimming pool and gardens, set over 6.8 hectares. It last traded at $5 million in 2004. Terrara House is now a wedding reception venue, where guests can sleep in the historic stables (pictured below).
4. Ballalaba, Jembaicumbene
The 1840s Ballalaba cottage and its 1830s convict-built barn pre-date the establishment of the nearby township of Braidwood. The three-storey stone barn with skillion stables was owned by the free settler Thomas Molyneux Royds, whose stable included the mare Maid Of The Oaks, which foaled the first Melbourne Cup winner, Archer. The property has views across the Shoalhaven River floodplain to the Bendoura Range.
5. Inverness, Burradoo
Inverness, the Burradoo equine property (pictured above), is owned by the Malaysian businessman Dato Tan Chin Nam, for whom Bart Cummings trained Think Big to win the Melbourne Cup in 1974 and 1975, and Saintly in 1996. It has facilities for breeding, foaling, agistment and quarantine, plus irrigation from a registered bore. It was sold by Jack and Sue Woolridge, who have raced horses since 1970. It's now known as Think Big Stud.
6. Huntworth, Werai
Huntworth, set on 117 hectares at Werai, was formerly owned by Bridget Woodford Smith, who stabled a number of well-known horses including 1981 Melbourne Cup winner Just A Dash.
Plus in the city:
Macleay Regis, Potts Point
It was following their 1961 triumph that Sidney and Rachel Cohen paid £6,750 for their Macleay Regis, Potts Point apartment. Cohen, a Potts Point garage operator, had owned the 1961 Melbourne Cup winner Lord Fury, the only horse since 1896 to lead the race from start to finish.
None are available for sale.