Historic Mornmoot built for Russell Chirnside – on 124 hectares at Whittlesea – listed
Historic Mornmoot, the 124-hectare horse stud at Whittlesea, in Melbourne's north, has been listed for sale by the Thompson family.
It is expected to generate interest as both a horse stud and for development potential.The green wedge-zoned property could make way for housing given the Baillieu government's planning strategy that aims to stretch metropolitan Melbourne north.
Pat Rice & Hawkins agent Peter Balharrie had the listing the property with $7 million plus.
The six-bedroom homestead was constructed in the early 1900s for Russell Chirnside, who owned the property until around the 1940s. It's also been owned by Neville Young of Melbourne’s Young and Jackson Hotel and by David Leighton of the Leighton Group.
A feature of the homestead is its library – a stunning room measuring 25 metres by six metres, with walls lined with Tasmanian blackwood bookshelves.
The expansive residence is now set in a mature garden setting with plantings of pencil pines, elms, oak and cottonwoods.
It has a reputation as a quality breeding property as the Mornmoot thoroughbred stud.
It was home of the former national champion sire Century, one of only three Australian champion sires in the past 40 years, along with group-winning stallions Better Boy and Showdown.
The stud's yearlings and two-year-olds have sold for up to $250,000. Up to 400 mares can be housed on the property, which has rich creek flats and double frontage to the Crystal Creek .
Robert and Roshni Thompson purchased the property around a decade ago.
