ASCOT

JOEL ROBINSON

Upholding tradition

Ascot is considered one of Brisbane’s most traditional prestige residential suburbs. The affluent area, just off the Brisbane River and northeast of the city, has a rich history of period homes. There has been an influx of new-build homes, but its prestige property segment certainly is still confined to historic homes.

The suburb is becoming more tightly held. According to realestate.com.au, there were just 60 house sales last year – the second lowest number of transactions since 2012, when the median house price was below $1 million. It is now $1.415 million. Sutherland Avenue, consisting of 15 houses with views to the Moreton Bay region, is the most sought-after street and prices reflect that. The big-ticket sales kicked off in 2003 when fashion designer Keri Craig-Lee and her cattle baron husband, Trevor Lee, former chairman of Australian Country Choice, spent $6.12 million on the house Sutherland.

Two years ago Glenn Rutherford, vice-president of global cargo handling giant Swissport, paid $11 million for the nearby home of Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij, a street and suburb record. Meij had paid $8.615 million two years earlier when he bought the home from Maxine Horne, one of Australia’s richest female chief executives, and her ex-husband, Fone Zone co-founder David McMahon. Coronis Hamilton agents Andrew Coronis and Patrick McKinnon sold the six-bedroom home on 2025sq m. It toppled the former price record for the street, set in 2014 when the Victorianstyle trophy home Windermere sold for $10.2 million.

Windermere is now back up for sale, through Ray White New Farm agents Matt Lancashire and Hamish Bowman, following a restoration by the current vendors, the Miers family. One of the oldest homes in Ascot, it was built in the 1880s for Ruth Sutherland, daughter of pastoralist James Sutherland, the street’s namesake, who acquired a substantial landholding in the 1850s. Ruth went on to marry solicitor and later pastoralist and politician John Appel, and they were the home’s first residents.

Believed to have been designed by architect Richard Galley, Windermere has had a who’s who of occupants during its 130-year history. Cattle baron TJ Cottee lived there, as did Robert Bentley, the accountant and long-term chairman of Racing Queensland, and for 40 years from the 1920s prominent doctor Sir Ellis Murphy and his wife, Mary, owned the home. Former Ariadne Corp deputy chairman Peter Maloney and his wife, Janet, owned the property

One of the oldest homes in Ascot, Windermere was built in the 1880s for Ruth Sutherland, daughter of pastoralist James Sutherland, the street’s namesake

Left, Windermere, the Victorianstyle restored home built in the 1880s; above, the swimming pool and interior of another Sutherland Street property

in the 80s and 90s, selling for $1.8 million in 1994. The gated Windermere, set on 4665sq m, the largest block on the street, has six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a media room, home office, 1500- bottle wine cellar and a sauna. Its centrepiece is a marble provincial-inspired kitchen, flanked by a grand formal lounge and dining areas. There are additional casual lounge and dining spaces. Lancashire says Windermere’s newly installed commercialgrade kitchen is arguably the best in Brisbane, maybe even in all of Queensland.

The deep wraparound verandas open to parklike manicured gardens featuring a central deck with outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, a swimming pool, spa and tennis court, set amid level lawns. Windermere was last sold by pub baron Andrew Griffiths and wife Helen to the local Miers family. The $10.2m sale in 2014 was the highest price paid in Brisbane since 2007.

The tightly held nature of Sutherland Avenue has pushed buyers to the surrounding streets.

Last year, the biggest sale came late in the year when a modern home on Rupert Street sold off-market just before Christmas for $5.2 million.