George Burgess partying until 7.30am in Bondi, neighbours say

George Burgess knows how to throw a party, or so say Bondi residents who have been riveted to the parade of lithe young things and well-dressed men coming and going from a pad he has been occupying.

John Singleton supported his sixth wife Julie’s foray into fashion design.

George Burgess knows how to throw a party, or so say Bondi residents who have been riveted to the parade of lithe young things and well-dressed men coming and going from a pad he has been occupying.

Sources say the parties at the former South Sydney league player’s pad go long into the night and frequently end around 7.30am, something that hasn’t exactly delighted permanent residents living at luxury development The Beach House on Campbell Parade.

We hear George is flat-sitting for a friend.

George Burgess apparently knows how to throw a party. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Some visitors have taken to slipping in via the fire escape which triggers an alarm that could wake the dead and draws emergency services.

But then there was much to celebrate in the Burgess clan last week following news older sibling Sam is set to become a father again.

Another family wedding and yet more vows to cherish until death do us part now look to be on the cards with hairdresser Lucy Graham apparently hinting the couple plan to tie the knot later this year.

AMBER SYMONDS’ FROCKS RAISE IRE

Garments in Amber Symonds’ lavish fashion collection Common Hours are sometimes embroidered with lyrics from famous writers and composers the designer finds inspirational.

Lyrics such as “Moved by an impulse of whose nature it is unconscious” by Oscar Wilde and “Moving up and so alive in her honey dripping beehive” by Scottish alt-rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain, and “You were bigger and brighter and wider than snow” by British alt-pop band The Cure.

An alternative could be the words of the hundreds of thousands of struggling mortgage holders who took a punt on Aussie Home Loans, founded by the designer’s mortgage broker husband, “Aussie John”, whose wealth is in part thanks to them.

Imagine Tarnai of Queensland’s words stitched in gossamer in a reversible silken robe: “Worst mistake of my life so far. I had my settlement delayed 5 times due to time-sensitive forms not handed in, constant delays in communication.”

Or Chris of Victoria’s: “Their service absolutely broke me. Terrible customer service. Let down after let down. Worst experience I’ve ever had with any company over the phone, absolutely useless.”

Amber Symond and John Symond attend the official opening night of Capella Sydney on March 30, 202. Picture: Getty Images

Model Gemma Ward wearing an early Common Hours design, a reversible robe. Picture: Instagram

Or “Aussie John’s” own mantra, as relayed in his 1995 TV ad: “You work hard for your money, so why give it to the banks?” and “At Aussie, we’ll save you.”

Amber — former daughter-in-law of Paul Keating and Annita van Iersel, and mum to their grandchildren Avalon and Slade — has dabbled in fashion for three decades.

The willowy mother-of-two and former model first realised her designer dreams in 2007 when she launched a capsule collection of comfortable basics with school mate Julia Laaman.

History doesn’t relate what happened to AmberJules, as the collection was dubbed, but Amber’s passion for design and global ambitions in the field were ignited.

Her new label, launched as a capsule collection of reversible high-end robes in 2019, had its first runway show in Sydney on Thursday night.

And while it was lauded by a fashion community starved of sumptuous fabrics and artistic whimsy, it has raised the ire of some who find the investment of “battler’s hero” Symonds’ fortune in the label galling.

The garments retail from $480 to $24,000, the top end of which could fund a deposit for a Sydney apartment, admittedly by 1995 standards.

Symonds joins an exclusive club of Sydney socialites whose fashion dreams have to have been helped by their wealthy husbands.

Who can forget John Singleton’s sixth wife Julie Singleton’s foray into fashion design in the late nineties?

To be fair, this writer had.

Jodhi Meares has acknowledged ex-husband’s James Packer’s investment in her first fashion collection, Tigerlily.

Eight years later Meares sold the brand in 2007 to Billabong in a deal worth between $3m and $5m and moved on to greater success with her second fashion label, The Upside.

Symonds too may harbour dreams of one day selling her new luxe brand.

But for now she seems pretty thrilled with the posh project, for which she admits she has no “monetary goal”, just a dream of being more audacious and creative in the years to come.

DUNLOP’S ADVENTURE CONTINUES

This writer is still hoping one-time Chapmans investments director turned Capital Mining boss Anthony Dunlop drops her a line — or possibly a postcard — relaying his adventures in South East Asia.

Following a report published here last month revealing Dunlop, husband of glamorous interior decorator and former hospital committee fundraiser Nikki, had links to the ASX-listed buy-now-pay-later company IOUpay, which collapsed two weeks ago and has since gone into administration, comes word Dunlop may be on the move again in the region.

Anthony Dunlop and Nikki Dunlop.

This column’s attempts to raise the corporate adviser fell on deaf ears last week but well-placed sources believe Dunlop is currently soaking up the sun in Papua New Guinea.

Perhaps he needed a time-out following the shenanigans that have recently embroiled the IOUpay board?

Last year this column learned the fashionable Dunlops, who once rubbed shoulders with Sydney’s society tribe, had acquired a ritzy property in Bali which Nikki was lavishly renovating with a view to it one day becoming the family’s home.

Nikki appears to be making inroads quickly and expertly in that department, or so say her social media followers.

As revealed in media reports following the collapse of IOUpay, Dunlop’s Piminik Investments (named for his three girls, daughters Pia and Mimi and wife Nikki) and in which he’s the major shareholder, allegedly received company loans from IOUpay in 2021.

Another of his companies, Birch Capital, was also allegedly paid in loans by IOUpay. Meanwhile, ASIC’s long and dogged pursuit of Dunlop on charges he dishonestly paid himself and associates a six figure sum while advising Capital Mining is due back in a Perth court next month.