The Sell: Queensland NRL legend Darren Lockyer buys more land in NSW
More than a decade after announcing his retirement from playing rugby league, Maroons legend Darren Lockyer continues his raids on NSW.
Property
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Queensland Maroons legend Darren Lockyer has expanded his NSW property portfolio.
The retired property-loving NRL champion hasn’t ventured too far over state lines, but just before the latest Ampol Origin series kicked off he bought in the NSW Tweed Valley.
It’s his second purchase at Crystal Creek — which is about 8km south of the border, and 30km from coastal Casuarina — as he and wife Loren had previously bought in 2016.
They have spent $2.6 million on the Crystal Creek Estate, a working cafe and nursery on 4.4ha. It was offered with registered tenancy in place, with its marketing noting the business was profitable as a “popular spot to enjoy great coffee and meals overlooking Crystal Creek.”
“Good neighbours, wonderful local community spirit all set in a beautiful location of the Tweed Valley,” the marketing advised.
The property comes with a four-bedroom homestead.
There’s horse stables and machinery shedding, and it has around 370 metres of Crystal Creek frontage, with swimming holes.
The Lockyers first bought in Crystal Creek in 2016 for $770,000, which secured a 4ha equestrian property with dressage arena, stables and electric-fenced paddocks.
They told The Sell they would use the property as a hobby farm for their children, who were into “quad bikes, motorbikes and farm animals”.
There have been just 10 Crystal Creek sales in the interim, topping out at $1,306,000 last October when a 3ha holding was bought by The Heart of Love charity foundation.
The Lockyers have been based in Brisbane’s Paddington for a decade.
Lockyer, who’s in the NRL Hall of Fame, closed the book on his playing career in 2011, having won four grand finals, a record six consecutive State of Origin series wins and a World Cup in his 17-year career.
He has been a club director at the Brisbane Broncos since 2013 and is a selector for the Maroons.
“I work in the property game, and have investments in other businesses, and I obviously cover the football with Nine” Lockyer recently told Denan Kemp, the Bloke In A Bar podcaster when asked what takes up his time.
He is also a director at One Key Workforce, the labour hire firm.
BYRON HAVEN A COOL BET FOR NICK
PointsBet co-founder Nick Fahey has bought a contemporary Byron Bay retreat, adding to his prestige property portfolio.
He has just spent $4.4m on the luxury new build in the Asana project at Byron.
Asana at Byron is three cool strata homes completed by Sydney-based Omira Property Group, who call themselves a “luxury holistic property developer”.
Omira is headed by Alasdair Baker.
The homes come with designs using environmentally-conscious building practices and material from local artisans.
The first sale in the Marvell St project, set about 300m from the heart of the town, was an off-the-plan purchase in late 2021, when former diplomat Julie Meldrum and her husband, longtime TV producer Murray Millsom, spent $4.5m.
They were intent on downsizing from their 1.1ha Ewingsdale holding Aamari Estate, which fetched $6.7m in early 2022.
This year, the second Asana house sold for $4.6m to Fiona Mead, the Melbourne-based head of group governance at CSL.
Each of the contemporary homes, designed by The Designory, has four bedrooms and their own pool.
It was around March last year, when Fahey’s partner, Channel 10 newsreader Kate Freebairn, had their first child, that they spent $16.32m on their three-level Tamarama abode.
It comes with five bedrooms, a home theatre, and a pool, built by Bank of America’s Peter “Strawbs” Phillips and his wife Susannah.
Fahey had previously spent $5.25m on two apartments in a Tamarama block of six in 2021.
The couple also own The Reef House at Aldinga Beach, a South Australian Palm Springs-inspired beachfront holiday rental.
Fahey co-founded PointsBet in 2015 in his late 20s, and floated the company on the ASX in 2019.
ACE JOCKEY SADDLES UP FOR BIGGER DIGS
Star jockey Tommy Berry and his wife Sharnee have sold their Dural home and bought 10km further out at Glenorie.
Their new property was marketed as having a six-bedroom home with a resort-style pool plus a separate two-bedroom house.
It is a 2ha holding with an olive grove of 50 trees.
The single-level, six-year-old main house comes with about 625sq m of internal space.
The couple bought it late last year, with the delayed settlement purchase recently settled.
They bought it shortly after they had secured $4.86m for their redundant master-built Langford Rd, Dural estate, which was also sold on delayed settlement terms to the Xin family.
It was a 2ha property listed with a $5m to $5.3m price guide through Joel McSeveny of Wiseberry.
Built by Chateau Homes, the six-bedroom, five-bathroom residence comes with a custom pool, study, bar and a three-car garage.
The Berrys had bought the home in 2016 for $3.15m.
Berry, 32, who has been working at a farm at Pitt Town, for Evergreen Turf, and Sharnee have four children.
Berry has ridden more than 1500 winners, 37 at Group 1 level, including three Golden Slippers, before he was disqualified for seven months this year.
With Berry planning to resume trackwork on August 24, and resume riding in races from September 24, racing veteran reporter Ray Thomas last month noted that the jockey was about 10kg above his normal riding weight of 54kg, but was doing daily gym sessions and was about to start dieting.
DEVELOPERS’ PROPERTY BID UNCOVERS A TINY PROBLEM
Any descendants of manufacturer Edgar Jacobs might get an unexpected windfall, with a property still in his name 104 years after he sold off his substantive Edgecliff holding.
By quirk of fate, the six square foot (0.55sq m) parcel sits crucially within a proposed 12-storey multimillion-dollar project at Edgecliff.
The intending 136-148 New South Head Rd developers, mother and son Vera and Andrew Boyarsky, are seeking possession so they have gone to the NSW Land Registry Services.
The reason why the small rear portion remained in Jacobs’ name is unknown, and only came to light recently.
Any claim of entitlement must be lodged next week as the Boyarskys seek their formal grant of possessory application s45e (2).
Jacobs bought his 329sq m New South Head Rd holding for £680 in 1917, and sold all but the small parcel for £952 in 1919.
Jacobs and brothers Reginald, a solicitor, and Harold, ran the family business, Paget Manufacturing, makers of popular household products Shi-noleum and Clever Mary, the enemy of grease.
Their parents were Fanny and Sydney Jacobs.
One of the siblings lived at Kama, on Wunulla Rd, Point Piper.
Edgar’s wife, Gladys Maud, died in 1942, having had two children, Betty and Joan, both born in England, according to an ancestral website site.
The brothers changed their surname in 1928 to Paget.
A spectacular fire in 1924, fuelled by turpentine and beeswax, gutted their Chippendale factory.
The firm was delisted on the stock exchange in 1950, having been acclaimed as one of the few companies whose shares were yielding more than 8 per cent.
The Edgecliff Central project comprises 41 apartments, above four levels of commercial office space, retail and three levels of parking.
It will sit above the heritage-listed former bank premises on the corner of Darling Point Rd, opposite the Edgecliff Centre.
The proposal seeks the demolition of the Knightsbridge apartment complex, plus the professional medical suites constructed by acclaimed surgeon Alexander MacCormick.
FLOAT IDEAS FOR WAREHOUSE JOB
A gutted Camperdown warehouse has been listed for a July 15 auction with a $3 million guide through Shannan Whitney at BresicWhitney.
Oliver and Pilar Workman, the co-founders of the rigid inflatable boat company Ribco, paid $3.28 million in 2020 for the then three-bedroom residential conversion.
Boasting 350sq m of internal space, it has approved plans by architect Sylvester Fuller.
NEW PATH AFTER FOREIGN AFFAIR
The department of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland has listed its Greenwich Point property.
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house has been listed through Chris Orr at Savills with $5.5 million guidance.
It cost $4.5 million in late 2018, when the median price was $2.7 million.
Realestate.com.au now puts it at $3.7 million.
MP’S OLD ‘SEAT’ CHANGES HANDS
The Bardwell Valley home of the late MP Bill Morrison has been sold for $2.4 million through Raine & Horne.
The former diplomat and wife Marty built the home on the 1279sq m clifftop block after he won the seat of St George in 1969.
Morrison, who died in 2013, served in the Whitlam government ministry.
Marty, a teacher-turned-refugee activist, died in 2021.
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