Clive Palmer carves up ritzy riverside suburb

Multibillionaire Clive Palmer has carved out a massive chunk of one of Brisbane’s ritziest suburbs, spending millions buying up the neighbours for his dream home.

Clive Palmer with wife Anna at the Stamford Hotel in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Multibillionaire Clive Palmer has carved out a massive chunk of one of Brisbane’s ritziest suburbs, spending millions picking off neighbouring properties for his dream home.

The cashed-up mining entrepreneur holds almost half a kilometre of riverfrontage in Fig Tree Pocket, where he has built up a private compound worth as much as $60m at current prices.

Mr Palmer tripled his footprint in the luxury riverfront suburb since the pandemic, with his family holding seven titles within the Brisbane inner west suburb.

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Clive Palmer bought this property off former Linc Energy boss Peter Bond for $7.5m and then set about to create the ideal home base.

An immediate neighbour bought out for $5m via his Closeridge company in March 2020 – a 1.26ha site. He now owns to the left and right of this estate.

The 70-year-old richlister – who is currently in Europe awaiting the decision of an international court over whether it has jurisdiction to hear his battle against the Commonwealth – now has one of the largest landholdings in the suburb with an estimated 10 acres.

“He is a property genius full stop. He’ll never say he’s looking in an area because all that does is push prices up,” someone close to the billionaire said.

“It’s the biggest home in Brisbane for sure. A three year rebuild that he added massively to. He would have doubled (the size of) it. That property could be worth more than $60m if he subdivided.”

American journalist Tucker Carlson and mining magnate Clive Palmer at his Fig Tree Pocket property in June. In the background is the original home that’s been refurbished, along with a memorial to his time in federal parliament. Picture: NewsWire/Glenn Campbell.

Mr Palmer is sitting on about $60m worth of property in today’s market at Fig Tree Pocket.

Mr Palmer bought embattled Linc Energy head Peter Bond’s $9.5m Fig Tree Pocket estate at a $2m discount for $7.5m in 2018, though the property had at one time been listed for $12m.

That gave him 1.26 hectares, before he then bought out two immediate neighbours on the street leading in to his estate within three months of each other in 2020.

The first was immediately next door for $5m via his Closeridge company in March 2020 – a 1.26ha site, before he bought the next neighbour in his own name for $5m in June that year – a 1.21ha property – securing him the left hand side of the street heading to the Brisbane river.

One of the property’s biggest selling points was not just the privacy but the riverfrontage allowing him to test anchoring his superyacht Australia next to his home.

A neighbouring property he took over in 2020.

The home during the refurbishment period at Fig Tree Pocket. Picture: Richard Walker

Among Mr Palmer’s neighbours is his son Michael who has a house nearby, and Queensland tech richlister Bevan Slattery – founder of NextDC and Megaport – lives immediately next door on the riverfront side of the property.

Mr Palmer’s most recent property purchases include a $28m deal in millionaire’s row in Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast – for a Hedges Ave luxury home bought with wife Anna in February, which came on the coat tails of another on Albatross Ave in his own name for $16.95m six days earlier.

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Peter Bond had designed the home to be like a resort.

Mr Palmer’s superyacht Australia moored in the Cairns Marlin Marina. His Fig Tree Pocket riverdock was designed to be able to accommodate this vessel. Picture: Brendan Radke.