David Gyngell, 'Strop' Cornell buy in NSW's Brunswick Heads

The former CEO of Channel Nine David Gyngell has teamed up again with his mate, John "Strop" Cornell to expand their Brunswick Heads holdings.

They've spent $3 million on the 1,012 sqm parcel in the northern NSW tourist town. It currently comprises two storey four units in a fibro dwelling with a huge backyard.

The site, which sold through Siwicki Real Estate agent Dave Bosselmann, sits across the laneway from the Hotel Brunswick, another of the duo's holdings.

Gyngell spent $5.25 million in 2013 to buy a half share of Cornell's Hotel Brunswick, a pub known for its classic Australian 1940s architecture with its courtyard beergarden shaded by giant poinciana trees. 

The coastal village pub was built by Jim Cavill overlooking Simpsons Creek and the Brunswick River. Locals reckon Brunswick Heads is what Byron Bay was 20 years ago.

The freehold of the pub was bought by Cornell in 1990 from Austotel for $2.1 million. 

Gyngell, who has a newly completed retreat in the Byron Bay hinterland, has been a family friend of the entreprenurial former comedian John Cornell and his wife, Delvene Delaney.

It was Gyngell's father Bruce who helped found the Nine network in 1956.

David walked away from one of the biggest jobs in the entertainment industry.

Gyngell and wife, journalist Leila McKinnon, have also just spent $1,675,000 on a three bedroom art deco apartment at Bondi Beach.

Gyngell outbid five others for the ground floor apartment, coming in with his first bid at $1.6 million after an initial vendor bid of $1.25 million kicked off proceedings.

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.