By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
If you thought the grand opening of Scots College’s $60 million castle would put an end to us writing about the Bellevue Hill private school, think again.
The garish faux-Scottish baronial castle (officially known as the John Cunningham Student Centre) was finally opened last month, seven years after plans were first lodged, at a lavish ceremony featuring fireworks and a military tattoo, a rather desperate and tacky display of extravagance that didn’t make the castle any cheaper or less ugly but did leave some parents grumpy about having to pay extra fees just to attend.
The garish faux-Scottish baronial castle (officially known as the John Cunningham Student Centre).Credit: Alex Donnini
Now there is further disgruntlement in the Scots community, in which, after all that pomp accompanying the castle’s opening, there seems to be little cash for much else.
Last week, parents were shocked to receive an email calling for donations toward funding various events for year 6 students headed for the senior school, including a mother-son dance and a celebration dinner at the suitably janky confines of Randwick Racecourse. That is, on top of the tickets they’ll have to purchase.
“We rely heavily on donations to keep these ticket prices as low as possible and afford those ‘little extras’ to make it a year to remember for the boys,” a fundraising email from the school said. Those “little extras” are hardly the stuff of a 12-year-old boy’s dreams.
Helpfully, the school gives parents a budget for the festivities so they can see just what their donations will be going towards. That includes $430 per case of French champagne (their tautology, not ours) because we hear there had been complaints about a function this year at which prosecco was served. The horror!
The school also needs $1250 for bowties for the mother-and-son dance, $2000 for celebration dinner cookies and $8000 to design and print the year 6 journal.
We asked the college about all this and didn’t hear back. But if our experience writing about the castle has taught us anything, it’s that nothing comes cheap in Bellevue Hill.
Brat autumn
Once just a heartbeat (and later a pollster’s coin flip) away from the White House, former US Vice President Kamala Harris somehow found herself in the Gold Coast speaking to a few thousand real estate agents on Sunday.
The 2024 presidential election loser was guest of honour at the Australian Real Estate Conference this weekend, her first trip Down Under facilitated through some savvy string-pulling by property kingpin John McGrath. How the real estate bros in their skinny Tarocash suits responded to the former veep’s sober calls to remember the 1930s is anyone’s guess. We reckon they might’ve gotten more out of California real estate agent and smarmy reality TV villain Mauricio Umansky’s hit session on Monday.
While CBD originally heard that Harris would make time only for the Gold Coast, she flew in to Sydney first before heading to the Sunshine State on Saturday afternoon, the day before her scheduled speech. Harris and her husband, former second gentleman, entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, had been spotted dining at the Bathers Pavilion by the harbour in Balmoral on Friday night.
On Monday, Emhoff posted an Instagram snap of the pair in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden. During their time in the Harbour City, CBD hears the pair were holed up at Crown in Barangaroo because what could be more peak Sydney than staying in a casino?
It ain’t 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the views are probably nicer.
Court of the crypto king
US President Donald Trump is a rather simple creature. Sometimes, all it takes to get into his good graces is flattery, money or a bit of both.
This is how Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick wound up in the court of the mad king. Last weekend, the president hosted an exclusive event for the 220 investors in his $TRUMP cryptocurrency at his Virginia golf course, a stunt straight out of the tinpot dictator playbook that kicked off frenzied buying of the “memecoin”.
Warwick, founder of cryptocurrency trading platform Synthetix and son of former professional tennis player Kim Warwick, was among those invited, according to The New York Times.
“It would be great to be able to meet the president,” he told the paper. “That’s something that I wouldn’t have expected I would have the opportunity to be even in the position to do.”
Warwick got his in by stockpiling $TRUMP coins since January, although he didn’t make it to the exclusive White House tour reserved for the top 25 holders of the president’s memecoin.
On the home front, Warwick, an early 40s young-rich-lister, owns a swathe of beachside property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and recently offloaded a USD$36.5 million penthouse in Manhattan’s West Village. This leaves plenty of cash for memecoins.
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