For years Bob and Margaret Rose have successfully balanced community and heritage concerns against making a buck out of property. Their company Rosecorp sponsored a recent National Trust conference with the theme "developing tomorrow's heritage."
But as the Roses plan their dream Palm Beach weekender they are shouldering a heritage burden of a different kind - what to put in place of the 1923-built Willeroon, demolished last year, after a battle that raged for six years over its historic significance. "We are known as building upmarket developments and this is one place we will really try to show it," says Bob Rose, who recently paid $6.3 million for the vacant site.
Heritage battles don't get much more personal than the one over the California bungalow-style house that used to stand on Palm Beach's prized Ocean Road. Instead of a heartless property developer, the people pushing for Willeroon's demolition were the grandchildren of the man who bought the land in the first subdivision and built a holiday home that would be enjoyed by his descendants for the next 70-odd years.
The three grandchildren are the BRW Rich Lister John Forsyth, of Dymocks book chain fame, his brother Andrew, a solicitor, and their sister, Julia Dunlop, a retired physiotherapist. Despite the family history and their memories of endless Palmie summers, they thought the house was a "very, very basic shack" and unsuitable for modern living.
They also knew the land would be worth less than half what the Roses eventually paid if the old house was protected. So they fought for their right to replace the building.
On the other side of the fence (literally) was Foxtel's chairman, Sam Chisholm, who appointed himself chief protector of Willeroon from the mercantile desires of its owners. He was also protecting the views from the new mansion he built next door.
The Forsyths won the battle but lost the war. Andrew Forsyth says the experience was "devastating".
"We are not the vandals that we have been portrayed," says Forsyth. "I think we have done our best to balance our own interest in preserving the value of our asset and at the same time preserve environmental concerns."
Ted Byrne is acutely aware of that juggling act. He and partner Jim Lewis are converting Babworth House in Darling Point into five huge apartments while developer Nati Stoliar is building 10 houses in the estate's 1.4-hectare grounds.
Like other grand homes dotted around Sydney's top spots, such as Swifts in Darling Point and Tregoyd in Balmoral, demolishing Babworth was never an option. The Heritage Office describes the Federation arts and crafts-style house built by Samuel Hordern in 1912 as "one of the largest, finest and most intact examples of an early 20th-century grand house in Australia".
Byrne says there is no market for such huge homes on large land holdings. People don't live like that any more.
But sensitive conservation and appropriate reuse can strike the right balance between saving the homes and making money. Even then it takes "drive, passion and experience", says Byrne.
The approval process for Babworth was a relatively short 11 months because Woollahra Council had already passed a comprehensive conservation management report before StVincent's Hospital sold the estate to Stoliar for $13 million.
"We are restoring all the significant fabric of the building and have teams of specialist tradesmen including french polishers, plasterers, roofers, tilers, and landscapers on site," says Byrne.
Babworth's rich history was part of the appeal of the apartments, priced upwards of $2 million and all sold to people living within five kilometres.
Swifts had a different destiny because there was one family, the private-hospital-owning Morans, who could afford to live the old way.
Also, it was owned by St George Bank, not a developer. If not, there might have been a tower of between five and 12 storeys in the western corner of the 1.4-hectare grounds. St George had sounded out approvals for such a development, provided the money was put back into preserving the house. But, mindful of the heat already generated by an earlier banned plan, St George deemed it better to accept less for the property and avoid any potential commercial damage from being branded an environmental vandal.
The Morans paid about $12 million for Swifts and spent up to $10 million restoring the 1880 residence to its full castellated Victorian splendour.
"It is a national treasure and we see ourselves as its custodians, so we must restore it perfectly," Doug Moran said midway through the restoration project in 1998. Even then, before the latest price surge, he thought the property would be worth significantly more than his total outlay.
Theresa Testoni and her late husband Fred made money in a different way from their heritage property Gledswood, one of Australia's oldest country properties with a convict-built building dating back to 1810. Wool industry pioneer James Chisholm built its two-wing main homestead from 1827.
"Fred had this vision to buy the property, cover the hills in grapes and have an open house as a tourist destination," says Testoni.
The Testonis bought the 46-hectare Camden Valley Way property from Anthony Hordern in the 1970s and have run it as a business ever since.
Testoni wants to retire so she is selling the $3-million-plus Gledswood but is confident the new owner will uphold her late husband's ideals. Whatever happens the house and a surrounding four hectares are protected.
"I have seen disastrous things happen," she says - once-grand estates are carved up leaving the main home an oddity overwhelmed by the new buildings that envelop it.
That wasn't the fate of Sir Warwick Fairfax's Camden retreat, Harrington Park. Under the stewardship of his widow Lady (Mary) Fairfax the Georgian-style 1827 homestead has been preserved on its 40-hectare hilltop estate while a vast new community is created on the surrounding 800 hectares.
Bob Rose says that he would happily have renovated Willeroon, if it was still standing. Instead, the Roses will build a weatherboard house with a traditional veranda that emulates what the Forsyths' maternal grandfather, Clive Curlewis, built almost 80 years ago. As for Chisholm, who funded the court hearings and appeals, "It was a tragedy that the council encouraged the demolition of Willeroon, but in the end Palm Beach was the winner because ... we welcome the Roses."