Paddymelon Ponds, a ByronBay hinterland homestead with subtropical jungle garden (pictured above), has been sold by the Switzerland-born sculptress Elizabeth Mamatis. About $4.5 million was secured by its selling agent, Nicolette van Wijngaarden from Unique Estates. Situated off Possum Creek Road and set on the highest ridge of the 40-hectare property so as to catch the sea breezes, the 1906 residence last traded for $700,000 when sold in 1995 by the CampEden pioneer Barry Wain. It first traded in 1918 for £4,071. The property was featured in the book ModernTropicalGarden Design by Made Wijaya with photography by Tim Street-Porter.
During her ownership Mamatis planted more than 20,000 rainforest trees. With views to the NightcapRanges, lawns with pool surround the 100-year-old Federation-style home painted to reflect the owner’s love of the colours of the Caribbean islands. The property also has an enormous bamboo forest known as the Bamboo Cathedral, a large spring-fed dam and Possum Creek frontage. There’s manager’s quarters, plus a two-bedroom cottage, a four-bedroom house and a function hall currently used for weddings. “Paddymelon Ponds has been a true labour of love and passion for its current owner who is in the process of downsizing,” van Wijngaarden advised buyers.
Former New Yorker Ephraim Sella and Georgie McDougall, who were once currency traders at Bankers Trust in Sydney having met on Wall Street, are selling their Cudgera Creek, Pottsville property (pictured above). They are seeking offers of about $2 million for the property, which overlooks valleys, mountains, bush and ocean. The house on 67 hectares was designed by James Grose. There’s also a productive lime orchard and timber plantation on the property listed through Michael Gudgeon of RayWhiteByronBay and Elders Bangalow agent Robert Nedwich. Architectural scholar John Hockings envisages the house will come to be regarded as one of the great Australian houses. It was a banana-covered block – with no road, power or water – when the couple with no prior house building experience, set about creating their new lifestyle. The couple have a double block holding within the Byron town which cost $1.1 million in 2005.
ByronBay’s prestige market has been slow, with just one sale above $4.75 million throughout the district in 2010, but in 2011 there were five known sales above $4 million including Sussan fashion chain executive chairwoman Naomi Milgrom expanding her holding with a $6.2 million acquisition. The 1,200-square-metre property is adjacent to the property she acquired in 2007 for $4.75 million.
Duncan and Sally Mount are holding out for $7.9 million plus for their Cedar Springs, Possum Creek, holding (pictured). The entrepreneur and his former model wife bought the 132-hectare holding from actors Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski in 2006 for $8.1 million. There were two building lots sold through Duncan Lorimer and Greg Price from Elders Real Estate Bangalow but only settled last year after subdivision approval. A 45-hectare lot was bought by New York-based ANZ banker Geoffrey Pack and his wife, Leigh, for $1.5 million. Solicitor Bryan Gorman bought his 41-hectare lot for $1.54 million. The main residence remains on the market through Nicollette van Wijngaarden of Unique Estates,whose website of the estate shows the former Hogan home in all its Hollywood splendour.
Skilled Engineering group boss Greg Hargrave is yet to sell on Marine Parade, Wategos Beach (pictured above). It was bought for $7.55 million in 2009 from the Albury medico David Kirwan, who bought the oceanfront reserve property for $900,000 in 1996. It had been listed for September auction through Glenn Irwin at LJ Hooker Byron Bay. The auction reserve was $7.5 million with the best offer to date understood to be around $6.5 milllion.
Property developer Max Campbell and wife Cynthia have secured $4.55 million for their ByronBay hinterland residence (pictured above and below) – not bad considering they were hoping for $5 million plus.
Set on 5.5 hectares with rainforests, it has sold to the Grant's – Christopher and Karen – within 10 days of offers closing through Nick Dunn of Byron Bay First National in conjunction with Raine and Horne agent Sophie Christou. The land had sold at $493,000 in 1993.
The founder of the Homebake music festival, Jessica Ducrou, has yet to sell her three-bedroom Byron house (pictured above). Ducrou and local surfboard shaper Dain Thomas paid $2.65 million for a 107-year-old house nearby in 2010. Ducrou co-produced the 2010 Splendour in the Grass festival, which moved from Byron to Woodford, Queensland, after locals complained about festival overload in the district. Initially listed with $1.75 million hopes in late 2010, it’s for sale with $1.1 million plus hopes through Brett Connable at RayWhiteByronBay and Matt Towner at Unique Estates. The property was bought for $460,000 in 2002. There’s no mid-year date yet for the next Splendour In The Grass with the approval process not yet completed on the planned move back from Queensland to the North Byron parklands site at Yelgun. Splendour In The Grass has been working toward establishing a permanent sustainable event venue with the chosen 240-hectare site undergoing appraisal by the NSW Department of Planning for a permanent cultural event venue.
Having spent $1.19 million in 2010 on a 43-hectare hinterland parcel at Billinudgel, William Scott, the former chief executive of digital marketing company CommQuest, is still seeking buyers for his Massinger Street, ByronBay, property. Initially listed for sale for $2.95 million plus in mid-2010, it’s on a multi listing with $2.5 million-plus hopes. It cost $2.96 million in 2008.
An 8.49-hectare Broken Head holding of the Smorgon family was sold for $6.3 million to former WorleyParsons executive Russell Staley. Melbourne's Smorgon family, who made their fortune in steel manufacturing, sold through Graham Dunn of Byron Bay Property Sales. The Smorgon family secured approval for an eight-bedroom, Kerry Hill-designed house. With 460 metres of beachfront, the 8.49-hectare holding had been bought for $5.02 million in 2005 from actor Paul Hogan and long-time colleagues John Cornell and Allan Johnston, who had paid $265,000 in 1983.
Amelika, the bespoke ByronBay hinterland property designed by architect Sharon Fraser in the white-box architectural style (pictured above), sold for $4 million to Sydney businessman Tom Lane and his wife, Emma. Tom is from the Lane family, founders of the Oroton fashion empire, but left the family business about five years ago and runs Quicksmart Homes, which specialises in accommodation modules. The Lanes’ acquisition, a single-level house, was built in 2006 on a flat block of land at Federal after the purchase by Fraser’s partner, Steve Esson, in 2005. Only a 100-year-old cudgerie tree blocks any of the 360-degree views of the northern NSW coastline and surrounds. The 10-hectare holding comes with two Minimalist sculptures by Melbourne artist Peter McLisky, a bore, windmill and dairy converted to an artist's studio. There is also an 18-metre pool. It had been available as a $7,000-plus a week rental. The building's green initiatives include solar-heated hydronic underfloor heating in its polished-cement floor and on-site waste management. It has retractable shading on external western walls that double as mosquito screens. Amelika had been listed through Unique Estates agent Nicolette van Wijngaarden. Esson has bought a $1.2 million Bangalow block of 3.475 square metres.
It was 2006 when the publishing magnate Stephen Bush and his wife, Rachael, sold their WategosBeach property for a record-breaking $15.68 million in 2006 to Sydney businessman Danny Goldberg. It then ranked as the best house on WategosBeach, the small pocket beneath Cape Byron Lighthouse. Wategos House, a six-bedroom colonial-style property, had previously sold at $2.09 million in 2000 when bought by the Bushes. The 1500-square-metre Marine Parade property with a large front lawn overlooking the beach with landscaped tropical gardens had traded at $1,770 in the late 1960s.
European fashion retailer Bob Pochter has sold his Byron hinterland acreage, Casa Bali (pictured above) for about $2.5 million through Unique Estates agent Nicolette van Wijngaarden. Pochter bought the former banana and avocado farm at WilsonsCreek for $492,000 in 2001 after he sold his upmarket Holland fashion boutique Reflections about 13 years ago. The modest timber home, built by filmmaker Richard Mordaunt, has since been renovated with three pavilion-style extensions. With gardens of heliconias and bromeliads, the grounds have waterfalls, ponds and a 16-metre pool with views from the ocean to MountChincogan. The 10-hectare property on Parmenters Road has been listed as short-term accommodation, sometimes taking between $10,000 and $12,000 a week. Mordaunt’s next home was sold to the SeaChange writer Deb Cox and her partner, Anthony D'Orsogna, when they bought at SuffolkPark for $810,000 in 2006.
Tricom sharebroking founder Lance Rosenberg's family investment company and property investor Phillip Wolanski have yet to find a buyer for their speculative hillside WategosBeach property (pictured above). It was bought for $3.4million in 2007 from former Byron Bay Golf Club director Brian Corrigan. In 2008 they lodged plans for a $972,000 redevelopment for the four bedroom property. The Palm Valley Road property comes with a $4.5 million asking price through Byron Bay Property Sales. Wolanski’s sister Josephine recently spent $1,125,000 on a ByronBay cottage.
Chef Steven Snow, who Title Tattle seems to recall gained his following at Chez Gourmet in Darlinghurst in the mid-1980s, and his Portuguese wife, Margarita, sold their hinterland Byron Bay retreat (pictured above) for $1.26 million. Snow opened Fins in 1991 in a quirky old building on the riverbanks of Brunswick Heads on the NSW far north coast, becoming renowned for Brunswick bouillabaisse, his saffron-scented Portuguese-style caldeirada crammed with local bug tails, mussels, scallops, spannercrab and fish. The property, bought back in times when $79,000 got you a hillside acreage, had been listed with $1.2 million-plus hopes through First National Byron agent Helen Huntly-Barratt. The four-hectare property at Possum Creek had a Greg Tollis-designed house. The one-hatted restaurant Fins moved in the late 1990s to The Beach Hotel in ByronBay, but Snow left when the Van Haandel syndicate took possession of the property from John “Strop” Cornell and his wife, Delvene Delaney, in early 2007. His book Byron: Cooking And Eating, with photography by Brett Boardman, was published by Murdoch Books in 2008. Fins is now at the SaltVillage at Kingscliff.
Brian Perkins, co-founder and member of Delltones, and his real estate agent, wife Janis, are selling the Pockets Rainforest Retreat. The couple plan to downsize and are seeking more than $2 million. The property includes four private villas, a farmhouse converted into a restaurant, a saltwater pool and spa. Janis Perkins of Raine and HorneByronBay has the listing.
Four Winds, the ByronBay hinterland property (pictured above) with main residence and two rental villas, remains listed through David A. Perez at Villa Prestige Properties with $5 million hopes. The two-hectare holding has been listed by former Sydney publican Rick de Leede and his partner, Helen. They left Sydney in 2003 after owning and running the inner-city RoseHotel in Cleveland Street, Chippendale, for 11 years. Four Winds is reached via a 150-metre driveway off Old Byron Bay Road at Coopers Shoot. It has six bedrooms, six bathrooms and three kitchens. Vaulted timber walkways connect the villas and main residence. The estate has views of CapeByron lighthouse, Lennox Head and beyond. Rick De Leede, who paid $2.3 million in 2003 and listed it with far greater hopes in 2008, is the brother of Tony de Leede, owner of Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat on the Gold Coast.
Artist Ken Johnson has reduced the asking price on his biggest landscape – his three-bedroom Byron Bay hinterland home, Incatrole (pictured above) – which has had about $2 million knocked off its initial $6.5 million hopes. The two-hectare Brooklet holding, which Johnson and his wife, Gail, bought in 2000 for $262,500, is listed through Nicollette van Wijngaarden of Unique Estates. The house features many Rajasthani details including 1,000-year-old sandalwood columns and 500-year-old Halevi doors. The three bedrooms lead to a walled garden and pool area with a large Balinese pavilion. A wooden walkway over goldfish-filled ponds leads to an artist's studio. There is also a guest cottage.
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Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens –so the word is that departed Parramatta Eels chief executive Paul Osborne will now consider offers over $1,499,000 on his ByronBay property investment (pictured above). It cost $1.9 million in January 2011. He claims to have been the victim of a ByronBay property deal that went sour. Osborne's financial situation was made very public when the omnipresent SMH investigative reporter Kate McClymont reported leaks that Osborne had borrowed money from the Parramatta chairman Roy Spagnolo. The Massinger Street, Byron Bay Property failed to sell last month when listed for auction through Ray White Byron Bay agents Brett Connable and Stuart Aitken. It previously sold at $1,475,000 in 2007.
Everyone knows Simon Baker from The Mentalist spent $1.5 million on his Nashua, Byron retreat... and he’s been spotted swimming at Byron on New Year’s Day. But the sale of the house on seven hectares at Nashua - now on the paparazzi trail - officially lists Nicholas Layton, a prolific property player, and Steven Burns as its registered buyers, not the former Ballina High boy made good. Don’t say that Title Tattle admitted it, but the ownership status with no mortgage is something of a mystery needing greater powers than mine to get to the bottom of it all.
