Murdoch armada expands with $30m fixer-upper

As Lachlan Murdoch waits on delivery of his shiny new 60-metre, $150 million sailing yacht – which is under construction at Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman – PS hears a slightly smaller, cheaper but no less impressive family runabout has joined the media magnate’s burgeoning armada and is bound for Sydney.

Built in 1954, the fully refurbished and thoroughly elegant 43-metre motor yacht Istros sold just over a month ago for around $30 million.

The award-winning Istros, a 1954 classic heading for Sydney Harbour.Credit: Boat International/Guillaume Plisson

Word among the international superyacht broking fraternity is that the buyer was Lachlan Murdoch, who did not respond to PS’s queries about the boat, though he was busy delivering his patriotic ode (and a swipe at ‘media elites’) to his adopted homeland at a dinner for conservative think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs on Tuesday at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Well-placed sources are adamant the boat will soon turn up on Sydney Harbour where it will become the family tinnie, a fitting accoutrement to complement the $100 million Bellevue Hill estate Le Manoir and the Point Piper “boat shed” for which Lachlan and wife Sarah Murdoch paid an eye-watering $37 million.

The Murdochs relocated from Los Angeles to Sydney a year ago, with Lachlan embarking on life as a global commuter aboard the family’s $90 million private jet, while their three children have settled into school life here.

Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch, pictured in 2019.Credit: SIPA USA

For years, Istros sat rusting away in Valetta Harbour in Malta before undergoing a complete overhaul that magazine Boat International reports included a brand-new engine room and “family orientated, sunny Scandinavian style” interiors. So impressive was the reno that Istros won the best rebuild prize at the 2021 World Superyacht Awards.

Istros certainly comes with a fine pedigree. It was commissioned by Greek shipping magnates, the Pappadakis family, but was overshadowed in its day by the likes of Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos, whose massive shipping fleets allowed them to create two of the world’s most iconic private yachts: Onassis’ much-fabled Christina O (which hosted everyone from Winston Churchill to Marilyn Monroe), and Niarchos’ 115-metre Atlantis.

It also boasted “cutting edge” technology when it launched, including a radar, a white private telephone and violet-blue bathrooms, all of which have since gone, though the original teak steering wheel has been restored.

And it seems Lachlan is not the only member of the family getting his hands on new toys. PS’s spies report seeing a Tesla with L-plates leaving Le Manoir in recent weeks, which would make sense given eldest child Kalan is now a strapping 17-year-old.

New Murdoch family tinnie Istros has all the mod cons.Credit: Boat International/Guillaume Plisson

Clive’s citadel

Never let it be said that billionaire mining mogul and dinosaur enthusiast Clive Palmer is one to suffer false modesty.

Golfers at his Palmer Resort complex in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast have been somewhat bemused by the new folly taking shape just off the fairway. Replete with imposing white marble Grecian columns, it’s been dubbed “The Cliveopolis” and appears to be something of a labour of love for the political aspirant.

This week a few more details emerged on the “shrine”, located opposite the Club House, including inscriptions on the base referring to Palmer as a “living national treasure” along with his one-time political achievement as a sitting member of parliament, now etched in stone.

Clive Palmer’s shrine to himself taking shape at Coolum this week.

Palmer’s office refused to be drawn on what the purpose of the new edifice is, or why it was being built, saying only that it was part of Palmer’s $100 million refurbishment of the resort, which according to various accounts had fallen into disrepair in recent years, despite the addition of his dinosaur replicas.

Last year Palmer announced the resort’s overhaul would feature “replicas of the wonders of the world and famous landmarks, including a full-size Trevi fountain”.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t do a “full-size” statue of Clive à la Michelangelo’s David.

Inscriptions on the base of the new shrine to Clive Palmer.

Rankin’s new life

Further to PS’ revelations last week about former Crown Casinos chief Rob Rankin divvying up the international property portfolio he once shared with his soon-to-be ex-wife Paula Bopf, including the $30 million-plus as yet unsold property Woodlands, PS has learnt the millionaire former Sydney businessman has clearly moved on in his personal life.

James Packer with former Crown executive chairman Rob Rankin arriving at the company’s annual general meeting in 2015. Credit: Patrick Scala

Now living in The Old Rectory in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, which was reportedly once home to James Murdoch, Rankin and his new partner, former Northern Beaches medico Rachel Thomas, recently welcomed the arrival of their first child together, a baby boy.

Meanwhile, Bopf, who was recently in Sydney and shares two grown children with Rankin, has evidently moved on in her life too, though a recent dalliance with a mystery Frenchman appears to have run its course.

Oscars arrivals

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: Jacob Elordi at the Oscars this week.Credit: Getty

If it wasn’t for “the slap” at this week’s Oscars, it would have been Australia’s very own Jacob Elordi who “broke the internet” when he made his debut as a presenter. Originally from Brisbane, handsome Elordi has won a legion of teen fans thanks to his appearances in the sugary teen hit Kissing Booth franchise (apparently Netflix has made three of them), and further cemented his celebrity status with a lead role in the popular drama Euphoria.

But it seems many of his fans had no idea he was Australian until he spoke in his native accent at the Academy Awards.

Landing a gig as an Oscars presenter is a coveted one in Hollywood, and PS hears it is no easy feat, with publicists and agents lobbying organisers in elaborate horse-trading exercises, offering up a big name in return for letting a newcomer shine.

And sitting near Will Smith in the “winner’s circle”, though thankfully beyond arm’s reach, was fellow Aussie Kodi Smit-McPhee, nominated in the best supporting actor role for The Power Of The Dog.

While he didn’t win, he certainly made his Hollywood “arrival”: decked out in a variety of designer outfits and jewels from Cartier, Bottega Veneta and Dolce & Gabbana, he managed to land on “best dressed” lists around the globe. Bravo boys.

Kodi Smit McPhee making his Oscars red carpet debut.Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Polo mishap

While Packer matriarch Ros is continuing the polo tradition at the family’s Ellerston country estate, a recent tournament she hosted at the Hunter Valley idyll between teams from Garangula and Kurri Burri a fortnight ago had a few of the well-heeled ladies clutching their pearls. Garangula’s star player Drew Harris was clobbered over his helmeted head by equally high-profile opponent David Marshall, causing audible gasps from onlookers. Harris played down the incident when PS called, but admitted it had left him shaken, while Marshall, Kurri Burri Polo Club and Polo NSW are yet to return PS’s calls.

Jones changes tack

It has now been more than three months since Alan Jones’ Direct to the People launched with much fanfare, but the fledging online show of the deposed former king of Australian broadcasting has failed to reappear since going on “Christmas break”. PS was assured on Friday by Jones’ protégé/producer/social media manager Jake Thrupp that the show would return, this time titled simply The Alan Jones Show and broadcasting “from mid-April” but via an entirely new format: a streaming app rather than social media platform Facebook. Apparently, the delay was due to Jones being laid up at St Vincent’s Private for two months following major back surgery on New Year’s Eve, though he appears to have rebounded and is heading to the Inglis Easter Yearling Sales luncheon at Warwick Farm on Sunday, joining the likes of Skye Leckie and Eileen “Red” Bond.

Alan Jones announces his new morning program in Sydney in December last year.Credit: Janie Barrett

Freshers for sale

The cringes came thick and fast during recent fundraising activities put on by the infamous Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club when the unspecified “services” of three “freshers” – first-year members who must spend their “initiation” proving their worth to the club – were offered up as an auction prize in their Speedos and covered in oil. They sold for $600.

It’s been six years since the “Budgie Nine” scandal overshadowed the club and its sibling establishments, the male-only Cabbage Tree Club and female-only Pacific Club.

Holding up traditions: the Budgie Nine in 2016.Credit: AP

Indeed, most of the well-heeled young men who dragged their tails back to Sydney after being released from a Malaysian lock-up – arrested for indecency after stripping at the Grand Prix – were long-term members of the exclusive, invite-only club, which brags to its members that it proudly targets the “best and brightest” to join its ranks.

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