The first bloke Tim Mathieson buys $115,000 bush block on Lake Eildon to build a shack amid the serenity
Tim Mathieson, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s partner, has spent $115,000 on a Jamieson bush block on the banks of the Goulburn River that flows into Lake Eildon in north-east Victoria.
The riverfront block is located just off the Mansfield to Woods Point Road.
The 1150-square-metre block (pictured below) on which he plans to build a shack – his own ‘‘Men’s Shed’’ – had been listed in the $105,000 to $125,000 price range.
It was initially listed at $129,000 in July last year.
There are seven neighbouring blocks at the location 120 kms from Melbourne.
The last also selling at $115,000 in late 2011, albeit with a one room fishing shack on its 1100 sqm.
Selling agent Jenny Ford of Mansfield Real Estate advertised it as "HOLIDAY ADVENTURE ON THE WATER."
"Camping, fishing, bike riding or bush walking this block offers it all," the ad said.
Tim Mathieson's father was born in Mansfield and his parents had a holiday cabin.
Property Observer notes solicitors Williams Hunt lodged the transfer paperwork on May 21 without any registered mortgage financing.
It's only in Tim Mathieson's name.
Mr Mathieson has since placed a caravan on the partly forested block, Fairfax Media reports.
“I’ve always loved that part of the country, from my first ever visit when I was 10,’’ he told The Age national affairs editor Tony Wright.
“I saw it as a great opportunity to start a long-term project to build a shack just like my parents had done. It’s a great spot to be able to go bushwalking and fishing down on the water. It’s everything that’s great about the bush and that part of the world.”
Wright noted wags have already suggested Mathieson was emulating the character Darryl Kerrigan.
Kerrigan in The Castle visited his lakeside shack in Bonnie Doon at the other end of Lake Eildon for the serenity.
Mathieson might be getting away from the Lodge to enjoy the serenity.
The lake was created in several stages. The first dam was constructed between 1915 and 1929, creating what was then known as Sugarloaf Reservoir. The storage was enlarged to 377,000 megalitres in 1935, and then enlarged almost tenfold between 1951 and 1955.
