Fashion designer Collette Dinnigan’s cottage razed by bushfires

Collette Dinnigan’s NSW south coast home was among hundreds destroyed by fire.

High profile designer Collette Dinnigan’s NSW south coast hideaway was among the properties destroyed by bushfires.

International fashion and interior designer Collette Dinnigan’s million-dollar clifftop house was among the hundreds of properties lost to the NSW south coast fires.

The house, part of a substantial real estate portfolio the designer has amassed, was located in the tiny hamlet of Rosedale, south of Batemans Bay.

Local real estate agent John Haslem of Elders told The Australian that the house, which Dinnigan, who is based in Rome, had renovated and rented out in the short-term rental market, burnt down on New Year’s Eve.

Dinnigan could not be reached for comment last night.

Batemans Bay has long been regarded as Canberra’s beach destination, with 80 per cent of its holidaymakers hailing from either the ACT or western NSW.

“Batemans Bay has been growing in popularity over the past 50 years with holidaymakers,” Mr Haslem said last night.

Mr Haslem, previously the Liberal Party’s member for the seat of Canberra, said 60 per cent of Rosedale’s houses were destroyed on December 31.

“Except for three houses, the whole clifftop of North Rosedale was incinerated,” he said.

“There’s going to be a lot of ­vacant land up for sale,” he predicted, adding that prices in Rosedale, more than a three-hour drive south of Sydney, had been rising substantially.

The bushfire crisis that has claimed 25 lives and burned six million hectares is forecast to deliver a hit to the economy of more than $5bn, according to estimates by Westpac economists.

Insurance losses from fires stretching back to September have so far hit $1bn, across 11,272 claims, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. The figure is expected to rise sharply as fires continue to burn.

Mr Haslem, who also lost his own home in the Batemans Bay fires, which he described as “Armageddon”, sold Dinnigan the two-bedroom clifftop cottage in 2018 for $950,000.

“During the fires, Batemans Bay and the seaside suburbs felt like a war zone. Most people abandoned their homes and headed for the beaches,” Mr Haslem said.

He said Dinnigan had carried out minor renovations to the small two-bedroom cottage in Yowani Road. Dinnigan originally bought the property because she wanted to hear the ocean from the cottage’s bedroom.

Dinnigan and her travel industry entrepreneur husband Bradley Cocks have bought and sold more than $50m worth of real estate since Ms Dinnigan shocked the fashion industry in 2013 by ­winding up her premium fashion label.

Apart from her Rosedale clifftop cottage, Dinnigan has bought and sold properties in Milton on the NSW south coast, and also at Avoca in the NSW Southern Highlands.

She is presently renovating a house in Bowral, also in the Southern Highlands.

Closer to Sydney, she has been involved with properties in Surry Hills, Paddington and Palm Beach.

Rosedale has long been popular with celebrities, with actress Nicole Kidman paying $4m for some beachfront cabins in the NSW south coast hamlet back in 2004, also through Mr Haslem.

But Kidman ended up selling the beachside cabins, fearing there would be little privacy for herself and her family, and retreated to her property at Sutton Forest in the Southern Highlands, closer to Sydney.