MANSION Read between the lines V1 - AUSE01Z50MA
THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, OCTOBER 19-20, 2019 theaustralian.com.au/property
realestate.com.au
AUSTRALIA
AT HOME
Victorian cottage is author’s perfect hideaway RODERICK EIME It may not be a chateau in Epernay or a villa in Tuscany, but Fiona and Ian McIntosh’s restored pioneer farmhouse in the rolling dales of Riverton could easily be the setting for the acclaimed author’s next blockbuster novel. A long unsealed road, which crosses the historic former railway line that linked Adelaide and Peterborough, will take you to the McIntoshs’ doorstep. The garden is bursting with spears of bright lavender, native shrubs and fruit trees, forming a perfect introduction to the late Victorian cottage with its elevated veranda and signature iron awning. Two period easy chairs sit like delicate sentinels either side of the ornate door as if to invite one to relax and soak up the afternoon sun. A motley band of house dogs noisily announce any visitor. Author of more than 30 books, including several runaway bestsellers such as The Lavender Keeper, The Pearl Thief and The Tailor’s Girl, author Fiona McIntosh, and her journalist husband Ian, found the late 19th century cottage in less than ideal condition, but that didn’t dampen the couple’s enthusiasm for this rural gem. “It took about a year to find and a further 18 months to restore. It was a bit of an animal house when we first looked at it,” confides Fiona, “but we swept out the mouse poo and did some major renovations. Now it’s much like the cottage of my dreams. “No one seems to know much about the history of the house,” chips in Ian. “A local farmer down the road can remember sheep wandering in and out of the roofless cottage at one stage and Fiona met an old lady in the village who recalled it was a grain and fodder store at another time. There was plenty of evidence of chaff under the old skirting boards.” Not that Fiona is terribly sentimental about the cottage’s past lives. “My life is all about emotion,” she proclaims, “I do everything based on emotion, including writing and choosing houses.”
Ian oversaw most of the practical renovation work while Fiona was busy on The Chocolate Tin. The couple engaged local builder, Des Barker, who used a great deal of recycled material in his work. With 40mm thick walls made from simple mortar and stone picked up in nearby paddocks, the task was enormous. No two door sizes were the same. The rotten floorboards were replaced with salvaged Baltic pine from a property in Mount Lofty
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Author Fiona McIntosh and husband Ian outside their pioneer farmhouse, complete with a black marble fireplace and chinaware PICTURES: RODERICK EIME
while leadlight and stained glass windows, doors and other features were purchased from Federation Trading in Adelaide and at various auctions. The concrete floor at the rear was also raised to the same height of the rest of the cottage. One item in particular is a real conversation starter. The couple were motoring around Tasmania on one of their many research trips when, by chance, they spied a builder’s salvage yard in Margate.
Among the forlorn window panes and sundry bathroom porcelain was the most magnificent black marble fireplace which, they were told, once adorned the living room of a former Macquarie Street mansion. “We took one look at it, glanced knowingly at each other and bought it on the spot,” says Fiona. “Getting it home was another matter altogether.” The task fell to Ian who managed to pack each piece into their
inspection last weekend. The two are now planning their next project. Burridge made his stage debut in the 1980 Australian production of Sound of Music starring Julie Anthony. He had been honoured for organising a public concert to raise funds for the Rural Fire Service.
Curtain call
The Tahmoor weekender of Dale Burridge and Johan Torsteinsrud
Acclaimed concert and corporate entertainer Dale Burridge and husband Johan Torsteinsrud, a contemporary dancer from Sweden, are selling their weekender in Struan Street, Tahmoor, with a price guide of $1m to $1.1m through McGrath Bowral agent Anne Stone. Billed as a five-star rural retreat the property is nestled among trees and lush established gardens with four bedrooms and polished timber floorboards throughout. Positioned on just over half an acre on a nice wide street the property has been used as a weekender and holiday house for the past few years. Burridge and Torsteinsrud bought into Tahmoor, part of the Wollondilly shire, in 2007 buying a run-down
old Holden Jackaroo and drive it all the way back to Riverton. It now occupies pride of place in the formal living room as if it always belonged. UK-born Fiona grew up in seaside Brighton and still yearns for the evocative grey overcast of the English winter sky. “I’m a creature of winter,” says Fiona. “I rather like gloomy, overcast days and I am at my most comfy when it’s cool. I love the colour green and I realise now as an
Billionaire’s buy EMERALD CITY LISA ALLEN
small house with an overgrown garden. The house is now a Scandinavian and Australian fusion of earthy tones, stone walls and textures. The house attracted scores of potential buyers at its first open
“Man of steel” Sanjeev Gupta picked up the eight-bedroom mansion Bomera at Wylde Street, Potts Point, for $35m in a major deal for the Sydney luxury housing market. Gupta had been renting a mansion known at Barford at nearby Bellevue Hill for $30,000 a week from developer Ian Joye. Bomera was sold by the Catelan family for almost three
adult how much patchwork fields, hedgerow, shingle beaches, British piers and Wellington boots on soggy days appeal. “One great plan I do remember from childhood was to live in an old house, with a long, long drive and nothing but hills to my back so I could escape when I saw any drop-in visitors heading down the drive. I have never enjoyed surprise visits by anyone. I like silence. I like the countryside.” While some parts of the house and outbuildings still need finishing, one critical installation is complete: the kitchen. In the one corner is Fiona’s Breville coffee machine which produces a creamy, fragrant brew. The rich aroma of just-steamed coffee is only challenged by the intoxicating smell of freshly-baked cupcakes emerging from the Smeg oven. The kitchen is clearly Fiona’s nerve centre — in the far corner is where her Apple Macintosh sits; her cookbooks, notes and research volumes piled around the keyboard. Little Mouse, the three-legged chihuahua who has been at her side for every book, sits nervously at the foot of her stool. “I don’t relax much. I’m one of those insatiably busy people. I sit still for my work so when it’s done I want to move. I walk about 4km every day but I switch off when I bake — and I bake a lot — it puts me into a mood of zen.” Looking closely at the shelves and mantelpiece, one sees plenty of old, character-laden chinaware, but there doesn’t appear to be many mementos from the couple’s travels. One might have expected to find little souvenirs that remind her of the vivid location settings from her novels. Although, a large lavender field painting does hang in the sitting room. “I actually don’t buy souvenirs as such, but I do like to bring something home though. It will usually be associated with food and I love to buy special baking tins if I can, or ingredients I can’t get at home but most often it is tiny artworks like ceramics, a sketch or a handpainted rock paperweight found in Spain.” For somebody whose gripping novels contain the most intricate details of their respective settings, the McIntosh cottage, known simply as Riverton after the nearby village, is refreshingly unpretentious and could easily remind anyone of their favourite aunt’s bungalow with its familiar, welcoming aromas and simple hospitality.
times the $12.5m they paid for it back in 2013. The deal was negotiated by Clint Ballard of Ballard and LJ Hooker.
Estate’s 1880 home Pilot Garry Studd and his wife Heather have listed their Old Meadows estate in exclusive old Bowral’s Holly Street with a price guide of $2.75m through The Agency Southern Highlands agents Ben Olofsen and Cameron McKillop. Built in 1880, the fivebedroom house occupies a 6700sq m site. It features 9-foot ceilings, polished Kauri pine flooring, while three of the bedrooms have ensuites. The kitchen has an Aga stove while the gardens sport a mix of mature, deciduous and evergreen trees.
TROPHY HOMES AROUND THE NATION JONATHAN CHANCELLOR
Sunland sale Sunland managing director Sahba Abedian and wife Nava are selling their penthouse in the luxury Abian Residences that Sunland developed. The Gold Coast bound couple, who moved in once the building was completed in 2017 from their Newstead base, custom fitted the 325sq m Alice Street penthouse. They paid $3,448,750. It features opulent laser-cut Italian Travertine, Calacatta natural stone and the finest European inclusions. It even has a control room with a built in safe. Two art galleries flow from the main entrance to the main living and dining wing that opens to a timber-decked alfresco. The master suite in its own wing has an ensuite and custom dressing room, while a guest wing comprises an ensuite and media room. Place Woolloongabba agent James McKinley has the listing in the tightly held building where prices have peaked at $4.95m. Sahba Abedian has been managing director of Sunland since 2001.
Weekender luxury Heronsdale, the Flinders weekender of architect Alan Synman, has been listed for sale. The Darley Court home comes with $2,950,000 to $3,245,000 price hopes through Kay & Burton agents Prue McLaughlin and Tom Barr Smith.
The Flinders weekender Offers close on November 22 for the fourbedroom, three-bathroom plus study home on 2,725sq m. Synman, who paid $500,000 for the home in 2002 before renovating, was awarded an OAM in 2017 for services to architecture. In 1976 he founded Synman Justin Bialek Architects, better known as SJB Architects, and stepped down as a director in 2005.
Sporting chance Some six months after the Hawthorn home of high-profile sport and entertainment manager Ralph Carr was listed, it has gone under offer, but the listing agents are advising it is not yet sold. Carr, who manages the likes of AFL Premiership player Dustin Martin, has been seeking $10m-$11m for the 1890s Shakespeare Grove home. When it first hit the market in April it came with $12m to $13.2m hopes. Carr has renovated since paying $7.55m in 2013. The 12room mansion has five bedrooms, a media room with marble wet bar, a library and a stately billiard room off the imposing arched reception hall entry. It once belonged to Clinton Casey, the former Richmond president. Abercromby’s agents Jock Langley and Simon Curtain have the listing.
Shifting sands The Castaway Beach, Queensland, holiday home bought by the WA-based Blackadder Group managing director Graeme Hearn just last year is back up for sale. Hearn snapped up the home two weeks into its marketing, paying $3.7m. Now it’s back up for sale through Tom Offerman Real Estate agent Rebekah Offerman, given the family simply haven’t found the time to use it. Built on a sand dune, the home with New England-style architecture was designed by Aboda Design Group. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a swimming pool across its three levels. The vendors were the Yardley family who had run it as a rental known as the Blue Dog Beach House. jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au