Gina Rinehart buys riverfront home in exclusive Noosa suburb
The rumour mill is in overdrive that billionaire Gina Rinehart has bought a property in an enclave for the super-wealthy. Read where she’ll be spending her holidays.
Entertainment
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Billionaire Gina Rinehart has become a holidaying Noosa regular over the summer, with heightened speculation that she has splashed out on a holiday home on the Sunshine Coast.
The local real estate vendors have been lining up hoping for her largesse, but Confidential gleans she may have already sealed an off-market deal for the home of her desire.
She apparently pinpointed the Mossman Court inland riverfront strip as her preferred destination whenever she’s keen to escape her Brisbane riverfront location.
There are fewer than 40 houses on the court widely considered the most prestigious riverfront address. They often have their own private stretch of sand and a jetty.
A couple of Sydneysiders have been the most prominent known recent buyers, including the retired Ramsay Healthcare boss Chris Rex and wife Lyn, who spent $10 million in September. Karl Wenzel, from Mosman, had set the slightly higher record price in August when paying $10.91 million.
In mid-2019 the Brisbane-based burger family, David and Louise Hales, secured two adjoining sites for a $12.5 million outlay, highlighting the inevitable trend of site consolidations on the strip.
Melbournites have also long owned on the strip, including the Pellicano brothers, Antonio and Nando, from the Melbourne property development firm who bought in 2017 for $3.835 million.
The Pellicano family retreat has been the most traded property, selling seven times in three decades, including a brief ownership by Austrian tennis champ Thomas Muster.
None of the local agents could comment on the mooted Rinehart purchase, given expected confidentiality agreements, or the prospect of future acquisitions by the billionaire. But the speculation on the price has been mooted at more than $20 million.
Rinehart’s eastern base has been in Brisbane’s Hawthorne since spending a combined $18 million on two adjoining riverfronts properties. She retains the family riverfront compound in her home city of Perth in Dalkeith.
Last month the mining magnate was spotted enjoying an expensive lunch at the Spirit House restaurant in a rainforest outside Noosa before leaving a $300 tip on the $1000 bill.
SANDILANDS’ NEW RAINFOREST RETREAT
Radio host Kyle Sandilands has added a far-north Queensland home to his impressive property portfolio.
The KIIS breakfast presenter has bought a retreat in Port Douglas, letting slip the news in an interview with The Amazing Race Australia host Beau Ryan this week.
“I just bought a house up there, it is that beautiful,” Kyle said to Beau on air.
When contacted, Sandilands’ reps didn’t want to add any further information.
The purchase adds to his list of properties that include a farm in the NSW Southern Highlands and a Hollywood Hills mansion in Los Angeles.
Kyle was spotted with new girlfriend Tegan Kynaston on a double date at Crown’s new Nobu restaurant in Sydney last month.
TOUGH BREAK GIVES HEMMES THE BOOT
Suave hotelier Justin Hemmes has been sporting an unusual fashion accessory of late.
Confidential can reveal the Merivale boss broke his left ankle while kite surfing at Sussex Inlet a fortnight ago.
He is wearing a grey “moon boot” and is now waiting for word from medical experts as to whether or not he has to go under the knife to fix the ligament.
A friend captured the moment Hemmes broke his ankle and shared the images to social media.
“This was never going to end well,” he wrote.
POLLIE SQUEEZE
Politicians are set to head back to Macquarie Street for the return of state parliament next week, but COVID capacity restrictions are putting noses out of joint ahead of the first party room meetings of the year.
The one person/4sqm rule has made available real estate in Parliament House scarce.
Confidential has learned that government whip Adam Crouch has booked the parliamentary theatrette for the Liberal Party’s meetings every Tuesday for the whole year.
That has angered some in the ALP who were using the room in 2020.
Labor has been relegated to two lesser rooms in the precinct.
CRIMS’ PHONE DISCONNECT
Word on the street is that Sydney criminals are dumping their Cypher encrypted phones in droves amid fears that law enforcement has cracked the once-secure devices.
Gangsters and bikies no longer feel safe organising their drug consignments or ordering hits on rivals any more, and are jumping to Signal, along with senior cops and lawyers.
However Unleashed has it on good authority that Cypher hasn’t been cracked at all, and the move has stemmed from a couple of crooks who got caught with the phones and the cops getting the passwords.
Either way, it’s not good news for former Sydney Comanchero Marco Coffen, who holds the Australasian rights to the encryption phones.
POPULAR CRIME SHOW BACK
Veteran crime producer Graeme McNeice, better known as Shadow, has begun work on a new Crime Investigation Australia Series.
The show, which was hugely popular on Fox from 2005-09 and again last year when it was repackaged by Seven and hosted by Matt Doran, has led the network to commission a brand new series.
“We already are working on some of the nation’s best-known crimes and have unearthed new information on a famous case or two already,” Shadow said.
The show will be fronted by Doran but will stick to a similar format, including its famous crime re-enactments.
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