Geoff Cousins snappily secures $13 million-plus Whale Beach buyers

Jonathan ChancellorOctober 18, 2012

After just two weeks on the market, Geoff Cousins, the adman-turned-environmental activist and author, has sold his six-bedroom beach house at Whale Beach.

With its rolling lawns flowing directly onto the sandy beach, the property's undisclosed snappy sale came as the offer price exceded its $13 million-plus expectations.

There were high hopes as its selling agent, Raine & Horne Palm Beach listing agent Glenn Lee, was billing it as arguably one of the best beach houses in Australia.

Cousins paid $1.45 million for the Whale Beach Road property in 1987 and commissioned architect John Crawford to design the home, which on completion in 1991 with quintessential Australian beach elements was featured in Vogue Living.

Designed as three pavilions with living spaces adjoining vast timber decking, the weekend retreat suited the large family and stream of international guests who would visit over the summer.

Offers were due November 14 ,with Lee now bettering the existing Whale Beach record of $13 million achieved for 245 Whale Beach Road in May 2007. Coincidentally that had been Cousins' previous northern beaches weekender, having sold to the late international photographer Richard Bailey for $1.5 million in 1994.

Cousins is the former head of Optus. As an environmental activist he helped mastermind the campaign against the Gunns pulp-mill in Tasmania.

He also authored The Butcherbird, a thriller novel.

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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