James Fairfax plans to subdivide, then gift historic Retford Park

James Fairfax plans to subdivide, then gift historic Retford Park
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

The philanthropic former newspaperman James Fairfax intends to subdivide, then gift his historic Retford Park estate in the NSW Southern Highlands.

Its envisaged the Italianate 1887 residence will sit within a protected 32-hectare heritage curtilage.

It will be preserved in perpetuity for the community with some funds from the neighbouring prestige residential development being directed into a trust which will pay for the long-term upkeep of the home and gardens.

The gifting won't take place until all approvals are given and development sales take place, the project director Allen Robinson told Title Tattle.

The Australian Financial Review estimates the subdivision could have a gross realisation of $50 million as the planning proposal changes the zoning from mostly rural to urban.

The Old South Road property, which sits on the southern edge of Bowral’s rapidly suburban expansion, comes with about 100 hectares including land zoned for subdivision.

James Fairfax plans to subdivide, then gift historic Retford Park

Under the proposal before Wingecarribee Shire Council, the 29-hectare eastern part of the estate will be subdivided into rural-inspired lots ranging from 8000 square metres to four hectares lots.

The 27-hectare western portion will have a 150-lot residential estate with three parks.

The project director, Allen Robinson told The AFR Mr Fairfax was determined to maintain the integrity of Retford Park with plans that were sympathetic to the heritage property and surrounding areas.

The philanthropic former chairman of the ailing publishing company that bears his family name had previously advised he would bequeath Retford Park for the benefit of the public.

The story was written by me in 2009 in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was his idea for at least three decades.

Retford Park has been the country home of the arts patron, who turns 80 this month, since he paid £15,000 in 1964 for it on a then four-hectare holding.

James Fairfax plans to subdivide, then gift historic Retford Park

In 2009 estate agents suggested its value was about $35 million, but substantially higher with any housing subdivision.

The Southern Highlands' highest-priced property sale was in 2007, when Reg Grundy bought Comfort Hill, a 200-hectare Sutton Forest property, for $15 million.

Retford Park, with an Italianate revival-style mansion, dates back to the 1880s when it was the summer retreat of the retailing Hordern family. The history of the property has been researched by Sue Rosen & Associates.

In December 1957, Jack Hickson took a series of black and white photographs of Retford Park, some of which are shown in the gallery below.

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It sits in well maintained gardens that include three Wollemi pines and a Guilford Bell swimming pool pavillion.

"I think Retford Park is an important part of the heritage of the Wingecarribee Shire area and provision has been made in my will for the house and the immediate surrounding land, including the garden, to be left in trust to be viewed by future generations," Mr Fairfax told me in 2009.

Listed on the register of the national estate since 1980, Retford Park takes its name from the village in Nottinghamshire, the northern England town from where Anthony and Ann Hordern immigrated in 1825.

The grounds have many heritage oaks, an enduring association with the Hordern's retailing business, whose emblem was an oak tree under which were the words "While I live, I'll grow".

James Fairfax plans to subdivide, then gift historic Retford Park

It was first sold after Anthony's great-grandson, Sir Samuel Hordern, died in 1956, leaving an estate of $279,000. It was briefly owned by the cattle stud operator King Ranch (Australia), of which Edwina Hordern's husband, Peter Baillieu, was managing director.

In his 1991 book, Regards to Broadway, Mr Fairfax recollected he'd had no plans to buy a country house. "But chatting to Peter Baillieu at a cocktail party in December 1963, I learned that Retford Park and 10 acres [four hectares] of land were to be sold." 

It occurred to James that it might be a suitable place for his mother to stay on her annual six month visits from England.

Mr Fairfax, the eldest son of the late Sir Warwick Fairfax and his first wife, Betty Wilson, then set about regularly buying adjoining rural land.

He also set about enlivening the house. 

"When my offer of £15,000 for the house and 10 acres with an option to buy another 10 in three years was accepted, I went into the usual ‘What on earth have I taken on?’ syndrome, but soon

recovered as I got involved in the redecoration which was being done by Leslie Walford," he recalled to Sue Rosen in 2011.

"Some six months later, in the winter of 1964, I commissioned Donald Friend to paint a mural in the dining room," he said.

Leslie Walford, who died earlier this year, recalled in a 2011 interview with Rosen that he recalled flying up to Mittagong with James to inspect the house.

His first impressions of it was "the garden choking the house."

"The house was a sort of cow-pat colour, a very unappealing colour. It had thick walls and narrow long slit windows and a tower, a rectangular piece of work with lots of frilly balconies, cast-iron lace and a pretty porte cochere. It had some delicate prettiness added to the strength of the architecture … it was a wonderful looking house."

It all made Retford Park one of the highland's prized properties on the edge of the expanding town.

Mr Fairfax also maintains a home in Woollahra, along with Ginahgulla, his house at Bilgola and Stanbridge Mill at Dorset, England.

The planning proposal contemplates the handing over Retford Park to the public via possibly either the National Trust or Historic Houses Trust NSW.

Colour photos courtesy of Highlife Magazine, which reports on life in the Southern Highlands of Australia

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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