Airlie Beach home with colourful backstory hits the market

Airlie Beach home with colourful backstory hits the market
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

An Airlie Beach home in the historic Chesapeake Estate has hit the market with $3 million hopes.

The property dates back to the 1980s when eccentric Kiwi millionaire Ron McDonald had a vision to create a 76 hectare compound community with a target market apparently of deposed African dictators.

Their welfare was to be ensured by a team of ex-SAS guards.

Airlie Beach home with colourful backstory hits the market

McDonald made his money selling air-conditioning units in Saudi Arabia.

His brochures for the community dubbed, Parc Exclusif promised parklands, houses, apartments and a private hospital. 

After buying a steep rain-forested hillside just east of town, McDonald began building the infrastructure for the thwarted proposed estate.

The three bedroom Mandalay Road home is listed for $3 million by Robyn Tyson at Professionals Whitsundays agency.

Airlie Beach home with colourful backstory hits the market

It is being sold by author and investor Bruce Bickerstaff, who bought the home from Hogs Breath Cafe chain founder Don Algie in 2000.

This article was first published in the Weekend Australian.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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