Fashionable couple Heildi Middleton and Michael Malouf’s Supreme Court stoush for Noosa beachfront with former politician Ian Cameron

What do a fashion designer, property developer and one of the biggest names in 1980s Queensland Conservative politics have in common? A stretch of uninterrupted beachfront overlooking the water at Noosa that has gone to the Supreme Court.

Designer Heidi Middleton and David Malouf, who own half of the land at 337 Teewah Beach Rd, Noosa North Shore, have forced the Cameron family to sell their share in the Supreme Court.

It’s the prized stretch of beachfront that pitted designer Heidi Middleton and her hotel developer husband Michael Malouf against a former federal Nationals MP in a Supreme Court stoush to build their dream home.

The co-founder of fashion label Sass and Bide and her husband of two years – who developed Brisbane’s trendy Calile Hotel – own half of the 40.5ha site at Noosa North Shore and took legal action to force the sale of the remaining part of the property.

A former dairy farm and sand mine, it has 466m of direct oceanfront and is just a stone’s throw away from Noosa and the bustling Hastings St, favoured by southern holiday-makers.

Fashion designer Heidi Middleton at her former Palm Beach home in Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd

For decades, the land was owned by four families, including two of the biggest names in Queensland conservative politics in the 1980s and ’90s.

Ian Cameron, who held the safest national seat in Australia, Maranoa, bought a 50 per cent stake in the land in 1979. He brought Howard-era senator John Herron into the deal alongside the Pie and Cohen families of Brisbane, who each had one-sixth of a share in the holding as tenants in common.

Mr Malouf, whose Calile Hotel was named last year by UK publisher William Reed as among the best in the world, first became interested in the beachfront property in 2022 after the site failed to sell at auction. A ­reserve had been set at $7m, but it was passed in at $4m.

Court documents show he had initially hoped to acquire the land to develop a resort, having already got a project currently under way at Noosa.

Ian Cameron held the seat of Maranoa through the 1980s.

“I tried to get a resort there 30 years ago with Leisuremark, and the council stopped it,” Mr Cameron told The Australian. “At that time, they (council) were going to do all sorts of things on the North Shore at Noosa, and that never happened … the land reverted to national park.”

The block shares the same oceanfront perspective of Noosa, which is separated from the property by the Noosa River opening and is surrounded by national park.

Mr Malouf entered into ­negotiations with the four families with the help of luxury agent Tom Offermann, principal of Tom Offermann Real Estate, and bought out the three minority owners in April and June last year in deals totalling $4.275m, public records show.

However, the developer’s plan changed in the latter part of 2022, according to court documents, after Mr Malouf showed the site to Middleton. By the year’s end, the couple wanted to build a family home on the site, which is zoned for rural residential development.

The Malouf-Middletons entered negotiations to buy the ­remaining half of the block from Mr Cameron’s ex-wife, Jill Alexia Cameron, who holds the title after a family court ruling two decades earlier.

But their plan came unstuck when two days before the site was agreed to go to public auction in June, Ms Cameron withdrew the property from sale.

So desperate to build their dream home, they went to Brisbane’s Supreme Court to force a sale, which was allowed by Justice Tom Sullivan this month.

Heidi Middleton and Michael Malouf on their wedding day. Picture: Instagram

Insolvency expert Glenn O’Kearney of GT Advisory & Consulting and lawyer Tim ­Elliott have been ordered to act as statutory trustees, with both stakes in the property to be taken to auction by a national commercial agency.

A firm is yet to be appointed to take the land to market, with Mr Cameron considering an injunction on the decision and a later appeal. If it goes to auction, Mr Cameron said the family would be bidding.

Mr Malouf was contacted by The Australian but declined to comment on the outcome.