Leisure entrepreneur Bill Bursill's Rose Bay house up for auction
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What a perch. A trophy seat looking straight up Sydney Harbour to the bridge. It was where the late Bill Bursill sat and read.
His 1950s house, set further back on the Rose Bay block, has been listed for November auction. More than $16 million is being sought by Wayne Yates from Laing & Simmons Double Bay.
Bursill's family home on Dumaresq Road, Rose Bay, has been listed for November 3 auction.
The family purchased the waterfront land in 1950 when it was being used as tennis courts. The house was built over two blocks, capitalising on its views down the harbour to the Harbour Bridge.
Bursill’s great-grandfather Samuel William was transported for life from England at the age of 17 and after being granted his ticket of leave took up residence in Campbelltown with Bursill’s father, establishing a general store business.
Having been predeceased by his wife, Valerie, Bill died in February this year, the day before his 96th birthday.
The house has been listed by his four children.
In the 1950s Bursill was instrumental in determining the site for a ski village at Thredbo, where his first Bursill Lodge was built out of a giant refrigerator cabinet bought at an Army disposal store. He also had another tourism lodge Rainbow Beach in Queensland, where his lodge, The Mikado, was established when nearby Noosa Heads was just a sleepy hamlet.
