Property empires of the Wide Bay Burnett rich listers
There is no shortage of business moguls across Wide Bay Burnett and they have property portfolios to match, some amassing more than a dozen titles. FULL LIST
Gympie
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From the Greensills to Hynes and Corbets, there is no shortage of well-known names behind big businesses in the Wide Bay Burnett region.
Of course with these operations come impressive property portfolios, which can be measured either by sheer volume of titles, or in the eye-watering price tags paid for them.
One family’s property empire sold in 2022 for an extraordinary price tag more than $100m, while numerous other multimillion-dollar properties dot the list too.
Some blocks have been in families for so long no sale records are available.
These are the portfolios of Wide Bay Burnett’s most well-known high flyers, as detailed by CoreLogic’s RP Data records.
Crumptons
The multi-generational family peanut farming company in the South Burnett has a staggering property portfolio dozens of titles long.
The family, which includes John and Joan Crumpton, and sons Sonie and Darren, has been a farming mainstay in the region for decades and amassed ownership of dozens of properties.
Crumpton SMSF No 1 CO is the listed owner of houses at Old Wondai Rd, Wondai, Alford St, Edward St, Ian St, Markwell St, Railway Tce, Thelma St and Toomey St Kingaroy, a block of five units at Brisbane St, Nanango, and three units at Thelma St Kingaroy.
The units at Nanango were the most expensive at $470,000 in 2018.
It also owns 88ha at the Bunya Hwy, Crawford, 31ha at Murphys Rd, Crawford, 7ha at Tessmans Rd, Kingaroy, and land at Pring St, Wondai, and Stolzenberg Rd, also at Kingaroy.
The Tessmans Rd block is the only one with price details on the record, having been bought for $360,000 in 2018.
The family’s Crumpton SMSF No 2 owns two blocks at Bunya Hwy at Kingaroy, one 11ha and another 1ha, and houses at Moonya St and Jubilee St, Kingaroy, Cants Rd, Cushnie, and Safflower St, Memerambi.
The house at Cushnie, which sits on 196ha, cost the company $580,000 in March 2022.
Family members Sonie, John, Darrn and Colin variously own dozens of homes across the state too.
These include homes at Double Island Dr, Rainbow Beach, Crawford Rd and Liesegangs Rd, Crawford, Alford St, Anne Crt, Buckingham St, Martin Pl, Oasis Dr, Poinciana Ave, Sevoy Crt, Schellbachs Rd and William St Kingaroy, Regency Rd, Moore Park Beach, and Coral St, Turkey Beach.
The Double Island home was bought for $660,000 in 2019.
Commercial buildings at Drayton St, Nanango and Sawtell St and Haley St, Kingaroy, make up part of the family’s extensive portfolio too, with Haley St the most expensive at $650,000.
Greensills
The Greensill family may have made headlines during the collapse of the internationally known financial service but the family’s business empire encompasses much more.
The family’s Greensill Farming company bought a Windermere Rd, Windermere four-bedroom property in 2007 for $200,000.
The company is the owner of a three-bedroom home at Seaview Rd, Quanaba, bought in 2019 for $267,000.
It is a short distance from the Greensill Farms packing shed.
A second Seaview Rd property owned by the company, and close to the shed, was bought in 2019 for $5m, RP Data records show.
It also owns a Wallaville-Goondoon Rd, Wallaville property bought in 2020 for $140,000.
Greensill Farms now owns an estimated 3053ha of land.
It includes properties at Gin Gin Rd, Oakwood (bought for $11m in 2017), Tofts Rd, Oakwood (bought for $3.228m in 2003), and Farquhars Rd, Quanaba, bought for $1.932m).
The family has a number of high profile homes too.
The Glass House at Bargara, bought in May 2019 by Lex Greensill for $4.12m, is the most well-known.
The same year Peter and Suellen Greensill bought a beachfront property in the C Bargara complex for $546,000.
Peter also owns a beachfront property a few blocks away from the Glass House, and a three-bedroom home at Raeburn St, Manley West, bought for $700,000.
Andrew Greensill is the owner of a four-bedroom home at Badilla St, Innes Park, bought for $425,000, and a two-storey beachfront home at Coolanblue Ave, Innes Park, bought it in 2019 with wife Julianne for $1.135m.
Corbets
Corbets Transport and the Corbets family are among the largest employers in the Gympie region through the company which has been a fixture in the region for four decades.
Alvin Corbet - who launched the company - and his son Andrew, also known as “Aussie”, have been the faces of the organisation across the years.
CoreLogic RP Data records show the land on which the two major Corbets businesses operate from in Gympie are under the ownership of Alvin.
No details are available about them.
The elder Corbet owns a private property at Mountain View Rd, Kybong, and a 191ha block at Lower Wonga bought for $1.15m in April, 2021.
Andrew owns a large property at Long Flat on the Mary Valley Rd, which has been in his possession since 2002.
Persals
The Persal family has established a commercial empire across the Fraser Coast, with a portfolio including the Beach House Hotel at Scarness and the Carriers Arms in Maryborough.
Its properties are owned by a number of companies.
The Scarness hotel is owned by Beach House Properties, with the property carrying an extraordinary price tag of $7.06m when it was transferred from Persal and Co Trading in 2022.
Handy Hire Properties is the listed owner of the family’s Handy Hire business at Ferry St, Maryborough, which was transferred at a value of $1.75m in 2022.
The company also has a $5m commercial property at Old Maryborough Rd, Pialba, two blocks valued at $2.25m at Svensson Heights, Bundaberg, (Industrial Ave and Inglis Crt), a $3.42m commercial block at Industrial Ave, Dundowran, and properties at Saltwater Creek Rd, St Helens, and Hall Rd, Glanmire, at Gympie’s southern tip.
Headwell Hire Properties is the listed owner of an industrial block at Islander Rd, Pialba, and Carriers Arms Properties is the listed owner of the business trading under the same name at Alice St (valued at $5.83m in 2020).
Graham Persal also owns private lots at Teddington Rd, Tinana, and Stewart Island at the Great Sandy Strait.
Templetons
Considered royalty in the region’s ginger farming sector, the Templeton family has been mainstays in the Gympie and Sunshine Coast industry since the 1940s.
The Templeton Ginger company is now helmed by the father, son and daughter trio of John, Shane, and Kylie.
It owns several large scale farms in the Mary Valley and outskirts of the Sunshine Coast.
These include properties at Don Napier Rd, Eumundi, Tuchekoi Rd, Bollier, and Glory Hill Rd, Kybong.
The more than 2000ha Tuchekoi farm was bought by Templeton Acres No. 3 for $3.4m in 1998.
Templeton Acres No. 2 has titles at Bidwill Rd, Bidwill, and Templeton Acres No. 1 has a 173ha farm at Bunya Rd, North Arm.
The North Arm property cost the company $970,000 in June 2007.
Hynes
The family who built the Fraser Coast’s timber empire are the owners of several large properties in the region.
The company run by James, Peter and Kelly Hyne, Hyne and Son Pty Ltd, have properties at Kent St and Enterprise St, Maryborough, and a 51ha timber mill at the Tuan Forest.
No sale details are available for the mill.
The Kent St property was bought for $17,000 in 1982, and the 2ha Enterprise St block cost $60,000 in December 2003.
Hyne and Son has land outside the state too, with properties at Tumbarumba, New South Wales, at Camden Park Rd, Jingellic Rd, and Tumbarumba Rd.
James and Jodie Hyne privately own homes at Whitmore St, Taringa, Cooloola Dr, Rainbow Beach, and River Rd, Tinana South.
McLeans and Flemings
The duo behind Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, John McLean and Cliff Fleming, own a number of properties as part of their business portfolio.
BDD Investments Pty Ltd has properties at Bonna Rd, Branyan, and Scotland St, Jealous Rd and Bargara Rd, Bundaberg East, on its books, RP Data shows.
The priciest investment was the Scotland St industrial centre, which was bought by the company for $1.43m in October 2012.
The Jealous Rd property came at a $825,000 in August 2014, and the Bargara Rd block was bought for $528,200 in February 2015.
Mr Fleming and his wife Lee own a private property at Bargara on Woongarra Scenic Dr, which has been in their possession for 14 years.
Mr McLean and his wife, Rae-Lee Fleming, have a home at Coolanblue Ave, Innes Park.
It was bought in May 2008.
Dores
The Dore family name has become well known in the Gympie region due to the popularity of the Dore Bros mechanic business near Gympie Central Shopping Centre.
It is not the only property sitting on the books of the family name which includes Bernard, Ann, and Matthew Dore.
CoreLogic RP Data records show they also own two of the city’s most popular fast food restaurants.
Ann and Bernard Dore are the listed owners of three properties in the centre of town.
These include the Hungry Jacks on the Bruce Hwy, the Pizza Hut diagonally opposite, and the bottle shop and retail shops sandwiched between the two businesses.
The bottle shop is the only property with a listed sale price on RP Data, $415,000 in June 2020.
The garage, located at Hyne St behind Hungry Jacks, is owned by Matthew Dore and Holly Schwennesen, along with a Hyne St house nearby, houses at Johnstone Rd, Lindsay St, and Sorensen Rd, and a larger joint venture with others at Dulkara Crt, Rainbow Beach.
Modins
The popular and long established Modin family has no shortage of high profile properties at the popular coastal tourist town of Rainbow Beach.
The family’s most well-known properties are the string of shops along the northeastern side of Rainbow Beach Rd.
The oldest of the properties owned by DEM Services, the family’s company, is the Foodworks which RP Data says has been in their hands since 1982, for $310,000.
Eleven years later DEM Services bought the blocks either side for a combined $390,000.
Ruth Modin, the face of the Foodworks for decades, also owns two private homes at Rainbow Beach Rd and Cooloola Dr.
Stahmann Webster
An investment company directed by Toowoomba-based Ross Burling snapped up a range of properties last year, formerly owned by the macadamia-magnate Steinhardt family.
Stahmann Webster, which is part of a Canadian-based PSP Investment, bought a number of properties from the Steinhardts in early 2023.
CoreLogic’s RP Data lists the sale price as more than $110m.
Properties now owned by the company include thousands of hectares of land across farms at Pranges and Russells Rds, Farnsfield, Voss Rd, North Gregory, Hurleys Rd, Bucca, Mahogany Creek Rd, Elliott, and Sharon Rd, Sharon.
A commercial property at Goodwood Rd, Alloway, is also on the company’s books.
Guilmartins
The owner of Maryborough’s iconic Ned Kelly Motel has a portfolio which extends much further than that.
Neal Guilmartin’s Velvet Glove Holdings is the owner of not only the Gympie Rd, Tinana, stopover but properties at Hight St, Jandowae, Adelaide St, Maryborough, and the Esplanade, Torquay, too.
The portfolio stretches beyond the Wide Bay to include properties at East St and Fitzroy St, Rockhampton (the latter a former restaurant), Moondarra Dr, Lanskey, and Victoria Parade at Thursday Island.
The 4.8ha Lanskey property is the priciest on the list, with a sale price of $880,000 in 2006.
The motel, famous for its giant Ned Kelly statute dominating the roadside and service station, was bought for $180,000 in 2003.
Priebbenows
The managing director of Wide Bay Transport, Murray Priebbenow, has a portfolio which includes two unique properties in Maryborough.
One is his company’s bus depot at Tooley St, owned by Fultonlawn Pty Ltd and bought for $155,000 in 1987.
CoreLogic’s RP Data shows the land value alone for the property in 2022 was $20,000 more than that price.
Mr Priebbenow’s other properties include joint ownership of the St Paul’s Lutheran Church at Woodstock St, which had been owned by Noel Priebbenow from 1987 to 1998, and houses at Amstal Ave, Wondunna, and Lennox St Maryborough.
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