Centennial Park’s best house is pretty as a picture, and yours for $25m+

One of this spring’s most anticipated listings, the historic Braelin residence at Centennial Park owned by philanthropist and gallerist Dr Gene Sherman, is for sale for more than $25 million following her recent purchase in Woollahra.

The grand Federation mansion has long been touted as arguably the suburb’s best house thanks to multiple suburb record sales and its many prominent owners since it was built by architect Donald Esplin in 1918 for Lord Mayor Sir Allen Taylor.

The historic Braelin estate in Centennial Park is for sale for more than $25 million by gallerist Gene Sherman.

Among its most notable owners are Sherman and her late husband, fellow philanthropist and co-founder of investment house Equitilink Brian Sherman, who died a year ago, aged 79.

The Shermans purchased the 2200-square-metre estate in 2018 for a then suburb high of $16.5 million, lured by its single-level floor plan given Brian’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. A reconfiguration promptly followed in collaboration with interior designer Don Cameron to turn what was a six-bedroom home into a two-bedroom residence with countless sitting rooms.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given Sherman’s decades as one of Sydney’s most notable gallerists and patrons, a walk through Braelin today becomes as much about the house as the art inside.

Gene Sherman at her Centennial Park home Braelin.Credit: Louie Douvis

There is a Boffi kitchen and living area overlooked by large prints from Zhang Huan’s Family Tree series, a landscaped pool and garden complete with a glass hammock on the back lawn by Pinaree Sanpitak), and the original grand entry hall now with a three-metre-long sculpture embedded into the floor by Korean artist Do Ho Suh (potentially an optional extra).

There is also a second dwelling above the studio where Sherman runs her philanthropic foundation and a self-contained flat above the rear gym/billiard room/teenager’s pavilion, all of which makes it more of an intergenerational family compound or ideal for community living for billionaires.

Among its former owners are Atlassian tech boss Mike Cannon-Brookes, who sold it to the Shermans in 2018, and restaurateurs Ian and Maryanne Pagent, who also set a suburb high of $12 million in 2015.

The Agency’s Ben Collier has listed it following Sherman’s recent purchase of downsizer digs in Woollahra for $13 million.

Prints from Zhang Huan’s Family Tree series feature in the kitchen-dining area and overlook a glass hammock by Pinaree Sanpitak in the garden.

Centennial Park’s record is currently set at $20.5 million by two residences also on Lang Road, but on less than half the land size: the first sold early last year to Aussie Home Loan heiress Deborah Symond O’Neil and her husband Ned O’Neil, and another sold a few months later by ragtrader Nick Kelly to fund manager Doug Tynan.

Two for the price of $53m

Don’t you hate it when you buy a $25 million house only to discover a few months later that an even better one has come up for sale across the road for $28 million.

What is one to do but buy both? That’s what philanthropist Paula Liveris has done.

The Bellevue Hill house sold by the Bray family after 45 years ownership to Paula Liveris.Credit: Domain

The wife of former Dow Chemical boss and now Brisbane Olympics president Andrew Liveris is, after all, quite the developer in her own right, having completed several residential and commercial projects in New York, Michigan, Florida and Greece.

And now it seems Bellevue Hill real estate is in her sights.

In March, the Point Piper-based Liveris family matriarch purchased the Bellevue Hill house known as Carrabah that was designed by architect Andre Porebski amid plans to bring it up to the standard of the suburb.

Paula Liveris’s husband is Brisbane Olympics president Andrew Liveris.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Two months after she settled on it, the architect John Suttor-designed home across the road - with more elevated views of the harbour - was listed for $28 million to the excitement of local developer types.

A well-placed source said Liveris wasn’t even looking to buy again, but given the opportunity to add value more extensively ... who can resist.

The house was long owned by Diana and the late Michael Bray, who had purchased it in 1978 for $240,000 when Michael was mayor of Woollahra. It was listed by Sotheby’s Michael Pallier and Mary Lin with a $28 million guide before sources say Liveris was introduced by buyer’s agent Jayden Hurvitz.

For art’s sake

The Lavender Bay home of artist Peter Kingston (centre, in orange) is next door to the long-held home of Wendy Whiteley (left, in white).

A piece of Lavender Bay’s more Bohemian history from its days as an artist’s enclave in the 1970s and 80s is for sale following the death of celebrated local artist Peter Kingston.

Kingston was described as an architect on title records when he bought next door to his late friend Brett Whiteley, paying $30,250 for half the house in 1975 and $35,250 for the other half two years later.

Peter Kingston at his Lavender Bay home in 2021.Credit: Louie Douvis

At the time Kingston and Whiteley were joined by the likes of Tim Storrier, Tom Carment, Garry Shead, Robert Jacks and Martin Sharpe, often lured to the area by each other, and the muse that is Sydney Harbour.

Peter Kingston’s Lavender Bay home overlooks Wendy’s Secret Garden and the harbour foreshore.Credit: Domain

Kingston was also an activist who campaigned to save the Walsh Bay wharves and Luna Park, and handed back his Australia Day medal in 2021 when it was announced that former tennis great and same-sex marriage opponent Margaret Court had also been honoured.

At the bottom of Wendy’s Secret Garden his bronze sculptures line the foreshore boardwalk.

Kingston died a year ago, aged 79, prompting his house to be listed by Sotheby’s Harriet France with a $6 million guide.