Fernhill sale sealed as Simon and Brenda Tripp secure the trophy Mulgoa home
Fernhill, the Georgian-era showcase estate at Mulgoa, is set to be transformed into an equestrian centre following its formal sale to wealthy businessman Simon Tripp and his wife, Brenda.
The couple will move into the mansion this weekend. They took a caveatable interest as purchaser under a November 30 put and call option deed.
With the sale the couple have secured the mansion outright and entered into a joint venture with the financiers Angas, the Adelaide-based boutique financier, to develop the 100-lot plus housing development on its outer perimeter.
All up the deal is valued at more than $50 million. The sale was the result of extensive negotiations by Teena Dwight (pictured below) at Dwight Real Estate Windsor in conjunction with Paul Cutcliffe at Cutcliffe Acreage Property.
The 654-hectare property at Fernhill comes with an 1843 homestead on Sydney’s western outskirts had been the home of the bankrupted property tycoon Warren Anderson. The listing followed a matrimonial Anderson family dispute.
It's been suggested the Tripps intend to revive a disused racecourse on the estate as well as construct a showjumping school, which would be run by their daughter.
Warren Anderson was ordered to vacate the colonial Greek revival-style mansion last November.
The prized estate last traded when it was bought from the founder of the Darling and Co merchant bank, John Darling, in 1980 for $2.8 million.
It was built for Edward Cox, the sixth and youngest son of pioneer William Cox, in the Greek Revival temple style, possibly designed by architect Mortimer Lewis, with amended plans dropping the second storey due to the 1840s agricultural recession. William Cox oversaw the building of the first road over the Blue Mountains in 1814.
Fernhill remained in the ownership of the Cox family until 1896, when it sold to the Wright family, of Wright, Heaton and Co, who billed their firm as the most extensive carrying firm in the colony.
The stone house and outbuildings were constructed over four years by 20 stonemasons who were brought in from Ireland.
The buildings are now surrounded by gardens modified in the 1970s by landscape architect Paul Sorensen, during which time the swimming pool was added.
Fernhill has 15 lots totalling 653 hectares, of which 404 hectares form part of the historic Fernhill estate that contains the original 1810 Cox family Crown land grant.
Anderson, the property tycoon whose collection of Regency antiques, old master paintings, French Empire clocks and stuffed animals raised $12 million in 2010 after matrimonial disputation, was made bankrupt in June 2011.
The six-bedroom mansion is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the country.