Claremont: Waurn Ponds homestead on the market as Baum family sells after 126 years
An 1850s homestead from a farm carved up for a Geelong suburb hits the market for the first time in 126 years. Its future is not clear as buyers circle.
An original Waurn Ponds homestead overlooking Deakin University has hit the market for the first time in 126 years.
Claremont occupies a 6156sq m property at 12-16 Kinsmead St, the remnants of a 100ha farm south of Geelong owned by four generations of the Baum family.
The homestead and its Norfolk Island pine remain landmarks as the farm was sold for houses over the past 25 years.
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It originally stretched from Waurn Ponds Creek to the railway line and between Rossack Drive and Ghazeepore Rd, though now has access from three streets.
Colliers International, Geelong agents Jonathon Lumsden and Sam Neale have called for expressions of interest closing May 22, with price hopes from $2.3 million to $2.5 million.
Gottfried Baum purchased Claremont in 1894. Fifth-generation grandchildren also spent formative years on the farm.
The homestead’s last occupant, Kenneth Baum, died last year, aged 90, months after Geelong’s council renamed a neighbouring reserve Baum Park.
Kenneth’s daughter, Debra Stavenuiter, who is selling with her brother Doug Baum and cousin Geoff Baum, said it was sad to be selling.
“When my grandparents died in the 1970s, Mum and Dad re-wallpapered and recarpeted and it was just heavenly,” she said.
Original bricks were sourced from the dam still in Baum Park and baked on site, but Ms Stavenuiter said they were crumbling.
“I’ve got an idea that the house will be demolished. She’s very, very old and very tired.”
Farming life was simple though the opportunities to venture into Geelong were rare.
“We had a big long drive full of pine trees and when I was a young kid we would only come into town once a fortnight,” she said.
“If it fell in school holidays, I actually got to go in (to town) too. One day there was a massive big storm through Waurn Ponds, in 1972 maybe, and one of the pine trees fell down. I spent all day crying because I couldn’t go into town because there was no access to Ghazeepore Rd.”
The farm had 1000 free range chickens, plus fruit trees, cows and even pigs.
“It was an absolute paradise. Not only did all of us climb the big tree. All of my kids are in their 30s, but they had motorbikes and Pa was still farming,” Ms Stavenuiter said.
“We had a lot of new Australians, as Dad would call them, come out to the farm and buy eggs and also buy the non-laying chooks and take them home and cook them up.
“When we had a subdivision when Dad got rid of the rest of the chooks, he would go over to Drews in Grovedale and buy eggs and sell them back at the door because he wanted his egg customers to still come out and talk to him because he loved it.”
Mr Lumsden said most buyers were developers.
The eight-room house has a detached kitchen, pantry, and servants rooms, and a dairy, stable and coach house and is surrounded by an orchard and vineyard.
Mr Lumsden said there were no heritage or vegetation overlays on the property, which was capable of holding 15 house blocks, or a 40-unit development, subject to council approval.
“You’ve got a bit over 6000sq m of general residential Schedule 1 zone, which appeals to further land subdivision or a more intensive unit/townhouse development, medical, childcare and even aged care,” he said.
Originally published as Claremont: Waurn Ponds homestead on the market as Baum family sells after 126 years