Rosebery, the Hawthorn home sells as townhouse development site

Rosebery, the Hawthorn house remembered as the long-time home to former deputy prime minister Jim Cairns and his wife, Gwen, has been sold again. This time to developers, Hudson Harlem for $6.1 million.

With impressive rose bushes on its front turning circle, the four-bedroom house, set on a 1,658-square-metre Wattle Road holding, was owned by the Cairns couple between 1956 and 1981, when sold for $225,000.

Cairns, who had a lead role in organising the 1970 anti-Vietnam War moratorium protests, was treasurer and deputy prime minister in the Whitlam government in the early 1970s.

The 1880s Victorian home at 21 Wattle Road was the bustling campaign headquarters throughout the Labor left-winger's career. 

Gwen died in 2000 and Jim in 2003.

Wattle Road, first known as Weinberg Road, is an early street in Hawthorn and marks the location of a farming settlement established by a group of German immigrants in the 1850s. Rosebery was reportedly constructed by the Vogt family.

This article was first published in the Weekend Australian Mansion Australia property section.