Couple sells multimillion-dollar Malvern mansion to move to Bali.

IF you owned a multi-million dollar mansion on Austral Tce in Malvern, what could possibly make you want to move? For Erik Metanomski and Lisa Kenny, it’s a desire to help those less fortunate. SEE GALLERY

29/01/15 - Adelaide couple Lisa and Eric Metanomski are selling their $3 million+ mansion in Malvern to move to Bali to run an orphanage and restore sight to impoverished blind people. Photo Tom Huntley

IF you owned a multi-million- dollar mansion on Austral Tce in Malvern, what would make you want to move?

For Erik Metanomski and Lisa Kenny, it’s a desire to help those less fortunate.

The couple have just put their 47 Austral Tce mansion on the market to live in Sanur, Bali to do humanitarian work.

Ms Kenny, who is already living in Bali, works as an ambassador for the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage and Mr Metanomski is chair of the John Fawcett Foundation for blindness prevention and cure.

Mr Metanomski said his work involved funding mobile operating vans that help cure blindness and treat sight-affected people in isolated and ­impoverished villages.

“It’s a completely different life but I don’t want to pretend that we’re living in the wilds of Africa — Bali is a tourist destination and it’s really evolved,” Mr Metanomski said.

“But outside the cities it is very third world still and underdeveloped and the people need a lot of help there.”

The John Fawcett Foundation was founded 30 years ago and has since performed more than 42,000 blindness-curing operations, distributed millions of pairs of reading glasses, millions of bottles of antibiotic medicines and performed cleft palate surgery and prosthetic work.

“Each week, on the Tuesday we’ll screen 500 people in a ­village, on Wednesday the sight-saving operations occur and then the great day is Thursday — miracle day — where you take the patches off their eyes and they go from being blind to being able to see,” Mr Metanomski said.

“If it doesn’t make you cry, you’re a rock — it’s absolutely incredible.”

Ms Kenny said the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage, which relies solely on sponsorships and donations, cares for 90 children aged from one to 21.

“Some are true orphans, we’ve got kids where both parents may be on death row, kids whose parents have murder/suicided in front of them, kids who have been saved from physically and sexually violent situations, kids whose mothers are prostitutes,” Ms Kenny said. “We’re breaking the poverty cycle through education.”

The Malvern 47 Austral Tce, Malvern home features up to five bedrooms, an inground swimming pool with pool house, an entertainment pavilion, a cellar, landscaped grounds and is set on a 2030sqm block.

It last sold for $2.918 million in 2013 and has since hadundergone further renovations.

“I love the feel of it and it will really hurt to sell this place because when I bought it I thought I’m going to be here for a long, long time but there’s too much in Bali for me to keep this,” Mr Metanomski said.

Inside the mansion

Harcourts Brock Williams agent Stephanie Williams, who is selling the home, said luxury properties were always in high demand.

“These big landmark iconic mansions don’t come up that often and they’re really tightly held because they’re blue chip and there's not that many of them,” she said.

For information on the John Fawcett Foundation or the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage visit balieye.com or careforkidsbali.com

Originally published as Couple sells multimillion-dollar Malvern mansion to move to Bali.