Rothiemay, Wahroonga trophy home for August auction

The 1930s Wahroonga mansion, Rothiemay has been relisted for sale.

It is being offered by Chadwick Turramurra agents Scott Chadwick and Jane Colyer for 23 August auction.

More than $8 million had been tipped on prior sale attempts, with the current estimate given as $6 million.

Rothiemay at Wahroonga was once home of Field pastoral empire. The inter-war Georgian revival home, with art deco touches, was designed by F Glynn Gilling for Herbert Field Jr and his wife, Patricia Macken, in 1939.

It was built on the foundations of an even larger nineteenth-century mansion, a 1906 John Reid-designed manse.

The seven-bedroom, six-bathroom two-storey home sits on an 8600 square metre Fox Valley Road holding. 

The property is the only site that retains a lot boundary from the initial subdivision of Brown’s estate. 

The late Victorian subdivision by the Brown family was carried out in 1896. In 1854 John Brown, a timber merchant, had purchased a large portion of the land granted to Thomas Hyndes in 1838 that saddled Fox Valley Road. Brown progressively cleared the land and planted the area with orchards.  

Its owner, Jim Neale, a property developer has been there until recently, having bought it in 1987 when it cost $2.2 million.

The house was briefly listed for sale in 2012 and again earlier this year. Rubbish from inside the house and garage filled a 20 cubic skip bin in recent weeks.

Jim Neale, a property developer, is the fourth occupant.

Surgeon Sir Alexander MacCormick bought it from the Field family, and he sold the home to Judge Christian Langworth.

Neale reckons a retirement village or nursing home should be built on the land, although no development application has been lodged or approved.

Ku-ring-gai Council regards Rothiemay as a heritage item, showing the house in its hey day.