Andrew Denton and Jennifer Byrne blaze a trail to Southern Highlands retreat
The bookish television personalities Andrew Denton and Jennifer Byrne have bought a two hectare Southern Highland retreat.
Their bush land retreat is at Mount Murray, located on the Wollongong side of Robertson. Most of its streets are fire trails with an elevation of 780 metres above sea level. The mountain is named after Sir George Murray.
Title Tattle had little prior knowledge of Mount Murray, though the $1.1 million property was sold by Anne Judell, who was an active devotee of the quirky Ask Doug column that once graced the SMH pages.
The property does not appear to have been publicly marketed as neither Domain, allhomes nor realestate.com.au websites carry any recent listings or sales at Mt Murray.
The purchase on the outskirts of the Wingecarribee Shire followed the sale last year of the studious entertainment industry couples' LU Simon (pictured above) through the Ray White Double Bay selling agent James Keenan.
After initial $3.8 million plus indications, the house fetched $4 million.
They had owned the house since 1998 when the 506 square metre property cost $1,845,000 after moving from McMahons Point where they sold in 2001 for $1.57 million.
There have been reports they have spent $4,025,000 on a Surry Hills penthouse in the St Margarets Ivy complex.
The penthouse was sold by BradfieldCleary agent Georgia Cleary last year, but no settlement paperwork has been registered. The 272 square metre penthouse was sold by the Livingstone family who bought it for $2.9 million in 2006.
It was the first sale at Mount Murray in four years. There are fewer than 40 homes - perhaps even 30 - at the locality where the highest price was back in 2005 when comedian Tony Sattler and actor Noeline Brown spent $1.6 million.
But they have hardly put Mount Murray on the map over the past decade given the dominant popularity of nearby Robertson.
Indeed Skye and David Leckie’s Robertson property, Mulberry Farm is the feature in the latest edition of the Southern Highlands bible, Highlife, for whom I pen the property column, Dream Estates.
Source: Highlife, Feb/Mar 2105
It is revealed the 12 audio speakers have been installed along the country estate's driveway with the jaunty theme from the 1960s television series, Bonanza heard by anyone on their way to the homestead,if their window is down.
The music was installed as a joke, a gift from the long-booted Skye to David, who had wanted to name their country retreat Ponderosa, after the property on Bonanza.
“I told him, ‘Over my dead body’,” Skye advised, “but for our first Christmas I had the speakers installed to surprise him. He thought it was hilarious. The theme music plays whenever the gate opens.”
The magazine editor Deborah McIntosh adds that Skye, a party girl from way back, knows all about making her own entrance for her weekender guests.
"This isn’t a weekender for hardy folk who want to labour in the country air, endlessly renovating, gardening or working with cattle," wrote McIntosh.
"It’s about jolly weekend pursuits: tennis, swimming, fishing in the dam, taking country walks, sipping wine by the fire pit, and cocktail hour, starting at 3pm."
The internationally renowned character actor Miriam Margolyes, who became an Australian citizen in 2013, and has bases in London, Bondi, Tuscany and California, maintains that Robertson, Southern Highlands is her preferred home.
Dubbed the grand dame of voice, Miriam discovered the Highlands when she was the voice of Fly, the honey-toned Border Collie who was the surrogate mother in Babe.
The movie was filmed all around the Robertson area and Miriam saw enough to know that she wanted to reside in the district.
The film makers had searched the world over before finding Robertson.
A huge film crew of 100 and a further 100 animal trainers descended on the town in 1994, staying five months. Margolyes found the 63 hectare holding, Yarrawa Hill then commissioning Mark Jones of the Nowra firm Edmiston Jones to build a house for herself and her close friends, Australian born Heather Sutherland and sister Sandra Sutherland and her husband Jack Pallimbo.
Built on poles on a precipitous slope, the eco-friendly corrugated iron house, with underfloor heating, is close by rainforest and faces the rolling plains of the Illawarra and the ocean beyond.
Miriam, who is still in constant demand for television, radio, film and theatre around the world, will undertake a world premiere Australian tour this year, The importance of being Miriam.
Yarrawa Hill, with east and west wings, is available for holiday rentals.
Robertson's recent departs include the retired shipping manager Peter Marshall and his interior designer wife, Janie who sold Lynwood Farm, the Robertson farm for $4.65 million.
Lynwood Farm was sold for to the Katz family headed by Ervin and Judith.
The superbly proportioned, three-storey timber residence stands on a 5.8-hectare holding with magnificent gardens featuring rolling lawns and a citrus orchard. Inside featured staircase balustrades designed in the Chinese Chippendale crisscross style.
The magazine also features 2GB’s top rating breakfast broadcaster Alan Jones for whom the Highlands isn’t a retreat or escape, it is home.
The rural life on Alan’s home at Fitzroy Falls serves as a reminder of where he came from, growing up on Queensland’s Darling Downs.
Initially built by John Darling Snr in 1981, the house has been extensively rebuilt since bought in 2003 from the Ireland family.
The 28 hectare property is now surrounded by a five-rung, black wooden fence. Alan purchased it for $2.6 million after deciding to sell his Jamberoo property The Church. Jones rents a Circular Quay apartment.
