Environmental warrior Geoff Cousins buys Federal retreat for $2.55 million

Ad man turned environmental warrior Geoff Cousins and wife, author Darleen Bungey, have joined the Byron Bay hinterland eco-scene.

They've emerged as the $2.55 million buyers of the Federal retreat of Anytime Fitness Australia co-founder Jacinta McDonell.

McDonnell had paid $2.1 million in 2015 for the Queenslander which came with an award-winning extension.

The classic character weatherboard wrapped in verandahs overlooks a 15 metre heated salt water swimming pool.

Helen Huntly-Barratt at First National Byron Bay sold the home. 

It's Cousins and Bungey's first move in the property market since 2007 when they traded Whale Beach for Point Piper.

It was also the same year Cousins crime fiction novel The Butcher Bird was published.

They sold The Wedge, the luxury Whale Beach home, for $13 million to mining services billionaire John Grill.

Cousins and Bungey then spent $10 million on a four bedroom Wolseley Road, Point Piper mansion overlooking the harbour.

Cousins, one of the most successful ad men of the 1980s, was chairman of the George Patterson advertising agency.

He was also the founding chair of the kids’ cancer charity Starlight Foundation.

This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.