Berthong, Elizabeth Bay harbourfront trophy home listed

An Elizabeth Bay trophy home, Berthong, once owned by actor Russell Crowe, has been quietly listed for sale through Christies International.

It means the 1880s villa, and the neighbouring harbourfront, Boomerang, are now both for sale, but by different Melbourne vendors. 

They were once both owned by the Albert family.

Berthong, which sits in lush grounds having been once part of the orchard of the colonial secretary Alexander Macleay, carries a price tag of $37 million to $40 million.

For a time Berthong was a strata duplex which was reunited as a home by the late adman Michael Ball, who sold it in 1995 to News Corp executive, Lachlan Murdoch who sold it to Russell Crowe for $9.25 million in 2001. Crowe owned the home for two years.

This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.