Bernard Fanning of Powderfinger hopes for Brisbane hit

Bernard Fanning is selling the two-bedroom investment unit he bought in Brisbane’s Paddington in 2011 for $422,500.

Mohonga at 268 Domain Road, South Yarra, has been fully renovated.

Musician Bernard Fanning has listed one of his Queensland investment properties. The former Powderfinger frontman, who has just launched his third solo album, Civil Dusk, bought the two-bedroom investment unit in Brisbane in 2011 for $422,500. He looks set to make a tidy profit, given its $529,000 asking price through Vern Gilbert at Professionals Toowong. The Paddington apartment has been a rental investment, having been last advertised at $410 a week. Fanning sold his Kingscliff apartment on the NSW north coast in March for $950,000, having rented the three-bedroom ground floor apartment when he relocated to Spain with his family after the band disbanded. Fanning has just spent $2.465m on a four-bedroom Byron home adjoining the Arakwal National Park, not far from his music studio rental.

‘Fortress-like’ Mohonga listed

The Mohonga mansion in South Yarra has been listed for sale, fully renovated, three years after its purchase by millionaire rag trader Peter Strover. It was previously the home of the late brothel owner, Peter Rand, the eccentric millionaire son of the late Thomas Rand. The five-bedroom Domain Road trophy home was built in the 1920s by architect Irwin Stephenson. Living there quietly since the 1960s, Rand made the news in 1993 when he paid about $700,000 for the adjacent property to cut down a tree that was blocking his view. Mohonga was part of a $50m property portfolio that included the Sisters estate in Sorrento, which sold to the Shelmerdine family for $19m in 2008. Mark “Chopper” Read claimed in his autobiography that if Melbourne ever had a true Mr Big of crime, of vice at any rate, then Peter Rand deserved the championship belt. He described Mohonga as “fortress like”.

Raise a glass to unique purchase

Comedian Gina Riley and her husband, TV producer Rick McKenna, have spent $4.85m on a former pub conversion in Melbourne’s Prahran. Complete with its own rooftop garden with heated pool, sauna and orchard, the striking red brick property has five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two open living spaces. RT Edgar selling agent Mark Wridgway said he had never sold a property quite as unique. Having begun life as the Red Lion Hotel during the 1860s gold rush, the pub closed in the 1920s and was used as a shirt-making factory and an ironmonger’s workshop before being converted into a stylish warehouse-style home by Angela Sach.

Wotif founder travelling on

Kevin Fitzpatrick, the founding chairman of online travel agency Wotif, and wife Jeanette have listed their Hope Island, Queensland riverfront. Set in the Riversleigh Gardens estate, the five-bedroom, single-level home comes with an executive office and games room. The Fitzpatricks bought the home in 2009 for $1.4m. It’s available through Hope Island Resort Realty agent Paul Corkill. Fitzpatrick made headlines
in 2006 when he pocketed $73m the day Wotif.com floated.