Sir Kenneth George "KG" Luke's Deepfields listed with $8.5 million hopes
Five-bedroom, five-bathroom Deepfields, on 410 Ochiltrees Road, Romsey, Victoria, is a 690 acre property with three titles and a grand back story.
The listing notes that it has been owned by just five different people since it was built in circa 1854, and that the last owners were Sir Kenneth and Lady Luke, whose family have owned it since purchase in 1942.
Sir Kenneth was the president of the Carlton Football Club from 1938 to 1955, and a slightly lesser known aspect to his life was horse racing.
This renowned breeding and 'fattening' property, with a farming opportunity, sits 70 kilometres from Melbourne and has been the home to a number of the nation's substantial horses.
Racing their horses under the FF prefix, Sir Kenneth and Lady Luke won the Williamstown Cup with Fighting Force, a horse who was a favourite for the Melbourne Cup and one of those in the Derby Day 1956 photo in the Hotham Handicap triple dead heat.
The property famously sent two bulls, Deepfields Keilor and Deepfields Leader, to Lord Hereford in the UK.
"Luke extended his interests after 1945. He had purchased the property, Deepfields, at Romsey as a weekend retreat, but the city-bred industrialist developed a passion for farming and made it a champion Dorset Horn and Poll Hereford stud," notes the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
"Survived by his wife and daughter, Sir Kenneth died on 13 June 1971 at his Hawthorn home and was cremated. By that time K. G. Luke Group Industries Ltd, with twelve subsidiaries, had sales of $17.2 million and an annual profit of nearly $3 million. Luke's estate was sworn for probate at $412,156. A stand at Waverley Park is named after him and a portrait by Paul Fitzgerald is held by the Australian Football League."
The home itself has parquetry flooring, a scullery and a sunroom, behind a bluestone gateway.
Two 1950s weatherboard houses are included in the listing as well.
Selling agent Rhys Nuttall from RT Edgar said that expectations were around $8.5 million.
The cattle yard complex has a capacity for 1,000 and has extensive shearing sheds, a large workshop, stable complex, two haysheds and a machinery shed, as well as 30 main paddocks, dams, troughs and a laneway system.
In the listing photographs, you can see numerous photographs of livestock. An article from The Age in 1972 describes the building."Hundreds of plastic-sheated ribbons line the stables and photographs of champions cover the walls of a large sunroom in the main residence," it notes.
