The Sell: Veteran Seven newsreader’s $8.5m move
Long-time Channel 7 newsreader Mark Ferguson and his wife Jayne have sold their Limerick livestock estate in the NSW Southern Tablelands.
Long-time Channel 7 newsreader Mark Ferguson and his wife Jayne, the media industry veteran, have sold Hazeldean, their Limerick livestock estate in the NSW Southern Tablelands.
They’ve reportedly secured the $8.5m asking price they’d been seeking since September last year through Col Medway and Tim Corcoran of LAWD.
The 777ha livestock grazing enterprise sold last month, according to the Crookwell Gazette.
The historic 1880s brick homestead is a single-level, four-bedroom, two-bathroom abode with multiple living areas, plus a verandah overlooking in landscaped gardens.
The Paddington-based couple have totally renovated the homestead.
It has an operational scale of 7650 Dry Sheep Equivalents with a history of carrying 3000 merino ewes and 150 cows.
Some 97 per cent of Hazeldean comprises open grazing land with the remaining 19ha being timbered grazing land.
It comes with 1.3km of double frontage to Phils River and 2.7km of single frontage to Berrells Creek.
There’s also 25 dams.
The property was offered as under long-term contract management.
The couple paid $1.95m in 2014 for the working farm, with a six-stand woolshed, sheep and cattle yards and machinery sheds.
It is located 234km from Sydney.
Parkes-born Ferguson was quite a pillar of the local community, getting the local rugby team, the Crookwell Dogs, sponsorship from Channel 7.
REALITY TV PAIR REVEAL NEXT MOVE
Kyal and Kara Demmrich, the popular renovators who’ve had a huge social media presence since their days on The Block, have snapped up their next Central Coast project.
The couple, who came third on the Nine Network’s series in 2014 when taking home $567,250 prize money, have bought at Shelly Beach.
They told their 369,000 Instagram followers that they “finally found the one” after 12 months of searching. They were even looking as far south as Patonga.
“This home has the most incredible bones, and we can’t wait to breathe new life into her,” they said.
“She’s a beauty with the most fabulous bones, and we cannot wait to help this home shine again.”
The five-bedroom, two-bathroom home cost them an undisclosed $2.03m.
The 575sq m block backs directly on to Shelly Beach Golf Course, with rear-gate access across the course to Shelly Beach.
Ray White Long Jetty agent Michael Melville marketed it as being in “one of the most coveted and tightly held locations on the Central Coast”.
The brick home with a pool last sold for $525,000 in 2002.
It has two living areas, one on the ground floor that opens to a covered patio and pergola, and one upstairs that has a balcony with views over the golf course.
The Demmrichs will be sharing their progress as they renovate, as they have with prior projects.
Last year, they sold both their new duplex houses at Long Jetty for $2.67m and $2.64m.
It took over a year to secure development approval from Central Coast Council, after the 696sq m site was bought during Covid restrictions in 2021 for $1,310,000.
“After the drawn-out process of two new builds, we’ve been excited to return to our renovation roots,” the couple advised.
Their first renovation project after becoming reality TV stars was in Killarney Vale.
That renovated four-bedroom Carlyon St house, transformed from a 1970s fibro, was sold in 2015 for $735,000, having paid $285,000 in 2008.
It resold in January this year for $1.32m, and is currently listed for December 6 auction with $1.39m guidance.
GREENKEEPER STANDS HIS GROUND IN COURT STOUSH
The spat playing out in the NSW Supreme Court common law division between property notables David Waterhouse and Michael Rothner has their big personalities on show.
The dispute is over Villa Biscaya, the Rose Bay trophy home that the Waterhouse bookmaking family descendant is selling for $26m to Rothner, who leads the Ashe Morgan private equity firm.
The home with old-Hollywood charm is set to settle in December following its mid-2023 exchange, having previously sold for $10.25m in 2021.
The five-day civil court hearing before Justice Ian Pike sees Waterhouse’s counsel, Francis Douglas KC and Damien Allen, accusing Rothner of “deliberate bad-faith conduct”.
The unfolding tussle over the pink Moorish Spanish-style Tivoli Ave home escalated dramatically after four palm trees on a neighbouring property were mysteriously cut down early during Rothner’s rent-free tenancy.
Having then faced eviction, Rothner, who denies he approved or even had knowledge of the alleged tree-cutting, countersued Waterhouse, who had refrained from signing off on development application amendments, thereby delaying Rothner’s desired wellness pavilion.
The case has referenced the 1973 Shiloh Spinners quasi-proprietary rights judgment of Lord Wilberforce.
The most colourful courtroom exchange came from the groundsman Gary Gibbons, who looks after Villa Biscaya for David and Tresco in Elizabeth Bay for Janette Waterhouse, David’s ex-wife. Gibbons gave his address as the Tresco boatshed.
During cross-examination Gibbons rebutted accusations from defence barrister Stuart Lawrance SC of lying in his affidavit about the tree destruction circumstance.
“Mr Gibbons, you’re a liar aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not.”
“This evidence that you’re giving to His Honour now is fabricated, isn’t it?
“No far from it, you muppet. Going like a budgerigar mate … dead set, with the same shit over and over and over again. You’re not going to get me to change – I’ll stick with my statement,” Gibbons said.
Waterhouse was cross-examined on his 12 affidavits. At one point he admitted he had told Rothner “a fib” – which he denied was “a lie” – over the rental availability of the house for New Year’s Eve 2023.
The court heard the dispute had seen 20 letters sent from Waterhouse’s lawyer, Gary Kosmin, to Rothner’s lawyer, John Landerer.
Rothner fronts the court on Monday, after evidence is heard from his “experts” Gavin Rubinstein and Jerome Srot.
MOVE FOR HISTORIC PURVES GALLERY AS PADDO PREMISES UP FOR GRABS
Art dealer Stuart Purves has listed his longstanding Paddington premises, with Australian Galleries set to move across the road from 15 Roylston St to rental premises at 10 Roylston St.
Purves, who bought the 282sq m gallery space in 1988 for $572,000, let his artists know of the gallery plans on Friday as the Sydney Sotheby’s listing went live on realestate.com.au.
“When we started in NSW in July 1989 with an exhibition by Tim Storrier, we thought we might be in Sydney for 20 years, it’s actually now 36 years, with 775 solo exhibitions held in Roylston Street so far, and no end in sight,” Purves advised.
The nostalgic letter gave an expansive selection of exhibitions held for 24 artists “sadly no longer with us” that included Donald Friend, Peter Kingston, Colin Lanceley, Kerrie Lester, Sidney Nolan, Margaret Olley, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley and Fred Williams.
“The move across the road will depend on the sale and settlement date,” he said.
There is no change in the Melbourne set-up, where prints by Henri Matisse and Robert Motherwell are on exhibition, nor the private sculpture park, at Porcupine Ridge near Daylesford.
Local solicitor Nicholas Eddy has prepared the Paddington sales contract, with estate agent Harriet France advising the cul-de-sac premises “provides buyers with many creative business and residential options footsteps to Trumper Park”.
It of course it’s a location with many other galleries including Justin Miller, Roslyn Oxley and Martin Brown.
Australian Galleries was founded by Stuart’s parents Anne and Tam in the 1950s. It was after his father’s death in 1968 that he ran the gallery with his mother until her 1999 death.
Earlier this year, the gallery published the first part of its planned two-volume history given its meticulous record keeping. The archives are run by Caroline Purves, Stuart’s sister. His daughters are Tamsin, the managing director, and Victoria, the website manager.
$40M HOPES FOR HOME ON THE HILL
The spotlight is on TRG’s Gavin Rubinstein to secure the December 3 auction sale of the Bellevue Hill home of Middle East AI entrepreneur Clayton Larcombe and his property stylist wife Kyara.
Their 1930s Victoria Rd offering comes with $40m guidance.
Rubenstein sold the property to the Larcombes for $33.5m in May 2023 settling in August this year.
There are now $16.2m Rob Mills designs for the 1243sq m property including eight-car garaging.
Having secured development approval, the couple have cited growing work commitments as the prompt to move on.
“Kyara’s business, The Property Stylist, which is the best property stylist company in Sydney in my opinion, has grown exponentially in the last 12 months, and Clayton is expanding to the Middle East,” Rubinstein told the local paper.
“They’re very time poor, raising kids as well, and now have a preference to buy something that’s already done.”
Any $40m sale will see the repayment of the two registered mortgages. The first is a $33.75m facility for 12 months at 9.65 per cent from Assetline. The second is a $2.25m nine-month interest only facility from Portica at 20 per cent interest.
Larcombe retains a Bowral retreat, La Gemme, which cost $7.5m in 2021.
$200K DROP FOR MANSION
A record-setting West Pennant Hills house has been resold at a $200,000 loss. The six-bedroom, five-bathroom home fetched $7.6m, down slightly on its record $7.8m sale in early 2022, also through the Louis Carr Real Estate.
The 1990-built Governor Phillip Place house sits on 2054sq m.
The house record now is an $8.5m sale in late 2024 for a six-bedroom Doris Hirst Place house on 3275sq m.
HUNTER MANOR GOES FOR $9M
Minimbah House, the Victorian boom-era residence at Whittingham in the Hunter Valley, has been sold for about $9m to Jack Henderson, founder of Henderson Advocacy, who will run it as a wedding venue.
Cain Beckett of Jurds held the listing for the 48ha holding.
The 45-room mansion was built in the 1870s for pastoralist Duncan Forbes Mackay to a design by architect Benjamin Backhouse.
THE MONEY OR THE BOX?
One of the three building blocks in the newly subdivided Pick a Box estate in Mosman has been sold by the Rose family after having $11.5m pricing.
The entire 5488sq m holding last sold for a record $22.45m in 2017.
The largest lot had a $18.5m price guide, with the smallest at $7m guidance. TV’s Pick a Box game-show compere, the late Bob Dyer, lived there with wife Dolly until 1977.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
Originally published as The Sell: Veteran Seven newsreader’s $8.5m move
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