Jonathan Chancellor: Menzies’s Talgai in Kew sells pre-auction
The former Kew home of the longest serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, has been snapped up pre-auction.
The former Kew home of the longest serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, has been snapped up pre-auction having been listed with hopes of $4.5 million. Talgai, the 1890s property on leafy Charles Street, played home to the Menzies family in the early 1920s when Bob and Pattie were in their mid-20s. Their time in the five-bedroom property was brief as by 1924 the family had moved into their newly built Grange Road, Culdares, a reference to the eponymous Scottish seat of the Menzies clan. Jellis Craig agents Campbell Ward and Richard Winneke secured the bullish sale of Talgai, which last sold in 1985 for $322,000 to the Curtin family. The property, which was rented from the printer and engraver, Charles Shugg, was where Bob and Pattie’s second son Robert was born. Winneke has also sold other Melbourne houses lived in by Menzies — in nearby Howard Street and in Reid Street in Balwyn.
Buckley penthouse to auction
The Ultra Tune owner Sean Buckley has listed his redundant Gold Coast penthouse for June 15 auction. The sprawling 573sq m penthouse in Aria cost Buckley $2.7m when bought late last year from the Smith family of Balwyn. Set over two levels, the Sunland-built apartment has four bedrooms and a private rooftop terrace with a 15-metre lap pool and a 10-person sauna. Buckley also owns Ultra Thoroughbreds, a primary and pre-training equestrian stud that has had huge success, particularly with Shamus Award, which won the Cox Plate in 2013 and the Australian Guineas in 2014.
Offer tabled for Hockey
Former treasurer Joe Hockey has an offer for his 90ha farm in the Atherton Tablelands. He quietly listed the Queensland farm in April last year with hopes for $1.15m, with the marketing by Elders agent Susan Bucknell suggesting the owners were looking for a quick sale. However, it’s taken over a year, and it is not the first time the listing has been under offer. The agent hopes this offer will result in a signed contract. The Malanda farm was bought by Hockey and his wife, investment banker Melissa Babbage, for $625,000 in 2003. Surrounded by established gardens, the estate comes with a renovated, two-bedroom Queenslander. Last year Hockey sold off a separate 41ha farm in Malinda for $600,000 that he bought for $520,000 in 2010. Their Canberra bolthole — used as a crash pad for his parliamentary sessions — recently fetched $1.515m. The Hockeys retain a house in Sydney’s Hunters Hill, which cost $3.5m more than a decade ago. They also own a weekender in the coastal village of Stanwell Park, south of Sydney, bought for $782,500 in 2002.
Jackson-linked Rofe home sells
The Wombarra home central to an ongoing saga concerning disgraced trade union leader Kathy Jackson and her partner Michael Lawler, the former Fair Work vice-president, has been sold. The house was owned by the Sydney barrister suffering from dementia, David Rofe. It fetched $1.2m under the hammer with five interested parties. The cul-de-sac home was bought in 2014 for $1.35m by Rofe. The somewhat neglected house is next to the home of Jackson. Its price fell short of its price guide of $1.4m-$1.5m through Ray White’s Mattias Samuelsson.