Richlisters Lindsay Fox, Bruce Mathieson head north as lockdowns bite
Lockdowns across the country have kept the best part of 13 million Aussies stuck at home, except of course if you’re a part of the many one-percenters whose well-timed vacations have seen them miss the latest round of home lockdowns.
At a time when European holidays are usually high on the agenda, it seems there has been flocking instead to Australia’s next best thing, Far North Queensland.
Margin Call hears such is the case for logistics magnate Lindsay Fox who, while his trucking fleet is busy ferrying vaccines around the country, has been kicking back at the Oatley’s luxurious Qualia retreat.
Fresh from Endeavour Group’s split with Woolies, Bruce Mathieson also has headed north, said to be sailing around Hamilton Island and sure to run into Mischief – Ian Malouf’s superyacht that is, last spotted just off Whitehaven Beach nearby.
Philanthropist Peter Scanlon has taken to the fairways of Port Douglas, a similar move to that of CSL chair Brian McNamee – no better spot to ponder just what to do with all the AstraZeneca vaccines his Melbourne factory is pumping out.
Only a little further south, Reece’s Bruce Wilson is said to be sunning himself in Noosa, while Andy Bell makes use of Bell Potter’s Coolum outpost, not far from the Hastings Street penthouse he and wife Ann bought for $9.8m last year.
No word yet on any plans to welcome billionaire Gina Rinehart to the enclave after her recent $34m purchase of Webb House, though she is reportedly spending her time cheering on the Olympic team at her Brisbane bolthole instead.
Spare a thought though, for those high flyers who’ve been stuck in their city boltholes – Premier’s Solomon Lew toughing it out in Melbourne’s fifth lockdown as he prepares for the departure of his long-serving chief Mark McInnes, and replacement Richard Murray.
Similarly, Anthony Pratt has been seen hanging out around his family estate Raheen, though with three different buildings on the property there’s plenty of space if he needs a change of scenery.
Down the coast, John Gandel has been holed up at his Point Leo estate down on the Mornington Peninsula, while Lloyd Williams takes time out on his farm at Cape Schanck.
Sure makes Sydney’s continuing lockdown sound all the more grim.
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Full disclosure
For all that the West Australian types like to reassure us they’re more than just a small town, here is the latest example to the contrary: Monday’s opening submissions to the state’s royal commission into Crown Resorts, including a number of personal disclosures by chairing commissioner Neville Owen.
The former supreme court judge, who sits alongside law reform commission head Lindy Jenkins and former auditor general Colin Murphy on the commission into Crown’s suitability to hold a casino licence in Perth, told the court he had three relationships to disclose, starting with upcoming witness Maryna Fewster, director of Crown Perth.
Fewster, the commissioner noted, was also head of Seven West Media’s West Australian operations, a role reporting to none other than local billionaire Kerry Stokes.
“I have a close personal relationship with the chairman to which she reports,” 73-year-old Owen told the court.
The relationship is no surprise, the two have had close links for some time, with Owen serving as a director on Stokes investment vehicle Clabon since 2012, along with David Gonski, Warwick Smith and recently returned Australian Ambassador to Japan, Richard Court.
Stokes made an appearance back at Owen’s retirement from the court in 2010 and even got a shout out, alongside that of Seven chief Peter Gamell, who also for a time was a fellow Clabon director.
Owen went on to note a relationship with former chief legal officer Joshua Preston, whose brother and family “are in a close friendship with some of my children”, the commissioner said, though he had “no recollection of meeting Mr Preston”.
Then the final and lesser-known string in the web, upcoming witness James Sullivan, gaming product manager at the casino group.
“He was in the same class as one of my children in high school and university. I am acquainted with Mr Sullivan but don't think I have seen him in the last 16 or 17 years,” the judge noted.
While he noted the relationships weren’t likely to cause any conflict of interest, the evidence against Perth’s small town status isn’t quite as convincing.
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Bolthole blues
The problems of private equity types are unlike those of your average investor.
Carve ups and cost outs are par for the course, but KKR’s local private equity head David Lang is grappling with a much more unique conundrum.
Just what to do with the $18m North Bondi bolthole at Ben Buckler he broke records in buying only years ago, when it no longer cuts the mustard.
Demolish it of course, as a proposal before Waverley Council suggests, and build a bigger and better mansion in its place.
Lang and former financial analyst wife Dearbhail have proposed to build a new $4.3m three-storey, four-bedroom home, razing completely any skerrick of the house they bought from former NAB exec turned Splitit chairman Spiro Pappas and his wife Nicolette back in 2018, including filling in the pool and relocating it closer to the back patio.
At the time real estate agents described the parcel as “one of Sydney’s best examples of contemporary coast architecture”, describing the design as “ingenious”.
Evidently though, its not up to the Langs’ standard.
Amended plans prepared by high-profile architect Madeleine Blanchfield were only lodged last week and detail “high standard modern architectural design” including floor-to-ceiling windows across most floors, a lift and master suite along with a green roof said to improve the overall amenity of the rest of the cliff-facing street.
It remains to be seen whether visual amenity alone will be enough to keep neighbours such as Afterpay billionaire Nick Molnar or more recent entrant to the street Moriah College president Stephen Jankelowitz from objecting to the proposal, though development is likely on the cards for Molnar at least after his recent purchase of the six-apartment block next door to his nearby home.
Here’s hoping that North Bondi’s own millionaires row can deal with a little extra
traffic.
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