Portsea house fire: Three storey Franklin Road home goes up in flames
Little remains of a $9m Portsea mansion, owned by a former Gribbles chief executive, following a fierce blaze on Sunday night.
South East
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Little remains of a $9m Portsea mansion following a fierce blaze on Sunday night.
Fire crews were still at the seven bedroom Franklin Rd pad on Monday afternoon watching for flare ups.
Investigators arrived about 12.30pm to start work on determining the cause of the fire.
Part of Franklin Toad was closed to traffic.
A police officer at the site said the house was destroyed by the fire, which started about 11.15pm on Sunday.
“There’s not much left,” he said.
The house, which records show is owned by controversial former Gribbles pathology group chief executive Wallace Cameron, was empty at the time of the blaze.
Mr Cameron had the house on the market in 2021 with an asking price of up to $9.5m.
The property didn’t sell during that campaign was taken off the market.
However, the Herald Sun understands it was sold in April 2023 and was currently under settlement.
In 2008, Wallace Cameron was sentenced to pay a $16,000 fine and $4000 in costs after pleading guilty to using his position at the publicly listed Gribbles Group to gain personal advantage, and for supplying misleading statements in directors’ reports, among other charges.
Cameron had failed to disclose a more than 40 per cent stake in Gribbles held by an offshore company was controlled by his children.
The businessman also made more positive headlines in 2014 with the $18m sale of his Brighton home, a then record for the suburb and one of the highest prices outside of Toorak.
The lavish property boats a lift connecting its two levels, a massive library and seven-car garage.
There is a pool with a cabana nearby and extensive gardens.
