Daughter in legal fight with mum over Portsea mansion
A showcase $11m Portsea property is at the centre of a bitter legal stoush in one of Melbourne’s prominent families, with the daughter launching legal action against her mother over a promise to pass down the property.
Fiona Byrne
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A legal stoush has erupted in one of Melbourne’s establishment families over a showcase $11m Portsea property.
The clifftop estate with ocean views is known as Positano and boasts a main home overlooking Shelly Beach, a three-level “bungalow” home, a grass tennis court, and use of a nearby boat shed.
Located on the northern side of Point Nepean Road in Portsea, it is owned by the Shelmerdine family who are related to the wider Myer retail clan.
The family’s eldest daughter Celia Burrell, who with her husband William created the renowned El Questro resort in the Northern Territory, has launched Supreme Court action against her mother Janice Shelmerdine, widow of Peter Shelmerdine, claiming the family matriarch tried to sell the landmark property despite promising it to her.
Mrs Burrell enlisted lawyers and slapped a caveat on the property in May after her mother emailed requesting she no longer come to the estate and that she intended to sell.
A Sotheby’s estate agent posted twice on Instagram later that month expressing his excitement at Positano’s forthcoming listing. Those posts have disappeared and the property has not yet been listed.
The mother-daughter divide is spelt out in the writ filed early this month, and comes after Mrs Burrell believed for years that she would have the right to buy out her siblings, Richard and Edward, and inherit the estate after her mother’s passing.
Further, she believed she had been granted the right to buy the property from her mother, should she wish to sell, during her lifetime.
Mrs Burrell bought out her brother Richard, a property developer, in 2008 and was negotiating with Edward to buy out his share, however that deal stalled in October 2017 after they were unable to agree on a price.
In January 2018 Mrs Shelmerdine and Mrs Burrell did a handwritten agreement in which Mrs Burrell would purchase the property and a formal contract of sale for $11m was drawn up.
However Mrs Shelmerdine did not go ahead with the agreement and in May 2020 revealed her intention to sell on the open market.
In the writ, Mrs Burrell claims she holds a two-thirds interest in the property with the right to buy out her other brother, and believes a 2008 deed outlining this is enforceable. She claims to have spent more than $500,000 on running and maintaining the estate since 2008.
She is seeking the right to occupy the property, is asking for an injunction stopping her mother proceeding with the sale, and is requesting the court declare she holds a two thirds interest in the property and that her option to purchase the remaining one third either during her mother’s lifetime or after her death, is valid.
Mrs Burrell declined to comment when approached by the Sunday Herald Sun.
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