Annette Sharp: Revelle Balmain $1m reward loose change for rich clients

The $1m reward for information about the murder of Sydney prostitute Revelle Balmain in 1994 is hardly an incentive for rich clients to give up a well-kept secret, Annette Sharp writes.

The million dollar police reward for new information on the murder of Sydney dancer turned prostitute Revelle Balmain has revived interest in Balmain’s private client list, among whom there are said to be a number of prominent Sydney men.

A beautiful blonde has never gone unnoticed in Sydney’s trendy east for long.

And one as stunning and willowy as Balmain, who was just 22 when she disappeared in 1994, would be expected to have plenty of well-connected suitors.

An after-hours career would only enhance such a girl’s popularity, particularly among a thuggish breed of Sydney-bred nouveau riche famous for passing girls along, father to son, son to mate, and so on and so forth.

Revelle Balmain was killed in 1994 and this month, police offered a $1 million reward for information.

In the pubs of Paddington and Woollahra she’d have turned plenty of heads among rival tribes of young and old business executives, lawyers, ad men, tradies, bikies and sports fans on their way home from matches at the nearby Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadium.

It was to Paddington’s Royal Hotel that Balmain was reportedly headed the night she disappeared, sparking a police investigation after some of her possessions were found scattered in the streets of Kingsford. Police are yet to make an arrest.

The list of prominent Sydney men with a penchant for working girls is, by all accounts, very long.

Many of the figureheads and scions of some of Sydney’s most famous families are known to have not only frequented brothels but also to have invested in them.

A couple of Australian household names are even said to have met their wives in such parlours.

Balmain was living in affluent Bellevue Hill at the time of her disappearance, just 10 minutes from Paddington’s Royal.

Some of Sydney’s best secret keepers live within that 10 minute radius, though for many of them, a million dollars is just loose change and hardly an incentive to give up a well-kept secret.