Flamboyant music industry entrepreneur Tom Misner has made a return to the Byron Bay hinterland, picking up a sprawling Bangalow retreat called Rockpool Farm for $15 million – setting a new price record for the semi-rural hamlet.

Monaco-based Mr Misner – who founded music education network SAE Institute in the late 1970s and sold it for about $300 million in 2010 – paid the record sum for a 12-hectare retreat a short drive from Bangalow Village. It was sold by public relations consultant Ian Pope and his wife, Kate.