Live like a star in Marta Dusseldorp’s Paddington terrace
How you can live like an Aussie star, a former celebrity eatery goes on the market, and which beauty queen has bought a home on Princess St? Jonathan Chancellor has all the news on who’s buying what.
NSW
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Actors Marta Dusseldorp and Ben Winspear, busy with plans to launch a theatre company in Hobart, are seeking tenants for their charming Paddington terrace.
They called the historic Paddington terrace home for four years, having paid $2,125,000 in 2013 when upgrading from their 1895 Leichhardt home.
Dusseldorp is best known for her role in A Place To Call Home, while Winspear starred in the Underbelly: Badness series.
Their Paddington terrace first became available for lease in 2017 when they quietly made the move to their $1.1 million Tasmanian acquisition with Derwent River views.
At the time the gossip magazines had them heading to Hollywood, but rather it was back to Hobart for Winspear, who’d moved to the mainland in 1995 after winning a place at National Institute of Dramatic Art.
The Paddington St terrace is now back up for lease at $1700 a week, the same asking rental they sought two years ago. The four-bedroom terrace with high ceilings, ornate cornices and kauri floors features three original marble fireplaces.
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It is being offered through Phillips Pantzer Donnelly property manager Ferhat Akin.
Four-bedroom Paddington rentals have a $1550 median, according to realestate.com.au, based on 66 lettings over the past year.
The couple have recently formed Archipelago Productions, with plans for a play inspired by Marta’s friend Favel Parrett’s novel Past The Shallows, set in southern Tasmania.
“I believe theatre made here can be as good as anywhere in the world,” Dusseldorf told The Hobart Mercury.
Having optioned the book, Archipelago and the Sydney Theatre Company have commissioned playwright Julian Larnach to prepare it for the stage.
For a month next February, Dusseldorf returns in the STC’s season-opener Deep Blue Sea, Terence Rattigan’s 1952 classic, where she takes on the Hester Collier role.
LANDMARK LA STRADA ON THE MARKET
The former La Strada premises in Potts Point has been listed for sale by Giovanna Toppi, the restaurant family matriarch.
The listing comes as her neighbours pursue an apartment project for the Macleay St strip.
The adjoining offering is four buildings combined to seek $100 million-plus for the 2170sq m holding.
Toppi’s piggybacking 322sq m corner-site offering last sold in 1979 for $348,000, with the elegant restaurant opening soon after with her late husband Walter.
La Strada took its name from the Fellini film released around the time Toppi arrived from Naples.
She came by herself with little money and no English, starting as a dishwasher but working her way up to head chef at Buona Sera, owned by Ettore Prossimo.
She went on to own and run O Sole Mio, Giovannas, La Strada and then, of course, from 1988, Machiavelli with daughters Paola and Caterina.
Until it closed in 1996, the restaurant, with its distinctive black and white marble flooring designed by Frank Grill, was the place to eat for any visiting star.
The black-vested waiters, the legendary Ricky Spinelli and Franco Perez, served countless steak Dianes and crepe suzettes.
All the celebrity diner photos, including Elton John, Sylvester Stallone, Sammy Davis, Rod and Rachel Stewart and Shirley Bassey, were hung in the discreet entrance.
Now operating as Spitroast, Ray White Randwick agent Sam Capra has the listing in conjunction with R & W agent Jason Boon.
BEAUTY QUEEN NOW A SUNSHINE STATE PRINCESS
Like many young Sydneysiders, former Miss World Australia Erin Holland has bought an investment in Brisbane.
The sports presenter spent $745,000 on her Cannon Hill first-home buy.
The rentvestor secured a classic elevated four-bedroom Queenslander home, held by the same family for over four decades.
“Pinch me, hard work truly pays off,” Holland posted to her 314,000 Instagram followers. “Four years ago this was just a distant dream.”
It has been quite a year for Holland, who is now engaged to Brisbane Heat cricketer Ben Cutting.
She’s been splitting her time between a Zetland rental and Cannon’s home in Hawthorne, which cost him $965,000 six years ago.
Cutting has been an active investor recently, selling his Cannon Hill new-build for $1.06 million, having paid $530,000 two years ago for the building block.
Cutting’s business, Deep Backward Square Developments, is a nod to his fielding position, while Holland’s acquisition is on aptly named Princess St.
RESTORATION A HERITAGE GEM
Following its 12-year restoration, Mill Pond Farm at Braidwood in the NSW Southern Tablelands has been listed for sale by antique collectors Antony Davies (inset) and Andrew Gow.
The duo are looking for a property to become a sanctuary for their rescue animals, while also continuing with their collection of vintage cars and horse-drawn carriages.
They’d previously restored the 1850s Braidwood inn Tidmarsh over 10 years.
Both restored properties have received heritage awards after becoming tourist attractions.
Kelly Allen, at Luton Properties, has the listing of the Jembaicumbene property, located 280km southwest of Sydney.
The 40ha estate has fine wool alpacas, carriage horses, goats and sheep.
MILLERS POINT RENO
Arts lover Paris Neilson has listed her stunningly renovated Millers Point terrace as she now calls an $11.8 million Balmain East waterfront property her home with husband Todd Buncombe.
The daughter of Kerr and Judith Neilson bought the Georgian-style Lower Fort St terrace for $2.115 million in 2011, early in the sell-off that saw 190 NSW housing department properties sold, with the $608 million spent on social housing elsewhere.
The four-storey, 1850s London-style corner terrace was modernised by Design5Architects after the restoration, which included its floor-to-ceiling sash windows.
McGrath Millers Point agents Richard Shalhoub and Andrew Stewart have the listing.
Originally published as Live like a star in Marta Dusseldorp’s Paddington terrace