High profile: Houses and owners with celebrity status in Tasmania
From architectural marvels to historic homesteads, cottages that were once crime scenes and mansions owned by local celebrities, these are Tassie’s most recognisable homes and who owns them >>
Tasmania
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Some houses in Tassie’s streets have garnered attention for reasons ranging from their grandeur to their quirkiness to their eerie sense of mystery or even horror.
Some of the homes are just as recognisable as their owners, while others are garnering attention in the media and among buyers simply for their rumoured links to celebrities.
Here are some of Tassie’s most famous houses, including the rich, the bold and the downright disturbing.
BATTERY POINT’S GRAND DESIGN
This property rose to fame in one of Tasmania’s most expensive streets though architectural TV sensation Grand Designs Australia.
The property at 62 Napoleon St, Battery Point appears modest from the roadside as a historic cottage but extends down the hill behind the road as a modern, luxurious home with a garden leading to the water’s edge and overlooking the River Derwent.
The home includes an indoor pool, an outdoor bath, large windows with an impressive vista, multiple levels and a larder.
Couple Greg Kay and Trish Knight renovated the quaint cottage into a lavish paradise to include four bedrooms, three bathrooms and two car spaces.
The pair’s journey fusing heritage cottage charm with contemporary living made them somewhat famous across the country and in Tasmania.
TINDERBOX CLIFF MANSION
The pair behind seafood giant Huon Aquaculture Frances and Peter Bender have a home perched ideally above the sea.
If you’re on a passing boat below the cliffs of Tinderbox, you can spy through the trees the vast home.
What you can’t see from the outside is the cellar that spirals down an extravagant staircase and carves deep into the cliff below, with a well disguised door at the bottom of the cliff.
The large home boasts a spa and sauna, a pool, a gym and a billiards room
The prolific business couple bought the home in 2015 for $3m.
MAD SCIENTIST’S ABODE
The name Rory Jack Thompson is guaranteed to send chills down the spines of most Tasmanians.
Similarly, most Hobart locals will know exactly where the man’s wife had lived during the period of her grisly murder.
Mr Thompson had been working for CSIRO when he strangled his wife Maureen in 1983, but he didn’t stop there.
His decision to hack apart her body parts and flush them down the loo resulted in an investigation after her finger was discovered in the sewers.
Maureen’s home at Hill St, West Hobart became a criminal investigation site when her remains were discovered in the pipes.
The house has since belonged to former Premier David Bartlett and has garnered popularity for its sinister past.
The home was built in 1910 and boasts a prime location near the CBD and West Hobart shops.
It sold in 2020 for far more than its asking price of $575,000.
HOLLYWOOD ACTOR & AUSSIE ICON
This seemingly ordinary Glebe home has become the centre of a special campaign to sell the property, which highlights its promiscuous history.
The Aberdeen Stabode was previously home to two nurses who were apparently well acquainted with none other than the prolific Tasmanian actor who made it big in the Hollywood golden era Errol Flynn.
Flynn had also lived in Glebe and was rumoured to have dropped into the home for intimate catch ups.
To add another celebrity factor to the house, actor Michael Caton who stole the hearts of the nation as Darryl Kerrigan from The Castle has jumped on board to help market the house.
The home overlooks Hobart from an advantageous hillside.
It was built in 1897 and was priced at offers over $685,000.
Though the house may not be Tasmania’s most extravagant building, its strong ties to celebrity gossip and its heavy duty marketing campaign push it over the line as a noteworthy Tassie abode.
Read more about the home’s history here.
NO PLACE LIKE MONA
Some might have forgotten among the constant controversies and boundary-pushing artworks Mona museum was not just a home to worldwide art, but was previously home to David Walsh and Kirsha Kaechele.
The $75m building housed the couple, who now live at Battery Point, but it also earned clout for its architecture, with the huge museum building sprawling around the cliffs at Berriedale and burrowing deep underground.
In the COVID-19 lockdown Kirsha decided to rip out some of Mona’s iconic lawns, which often entertain live performances and markets, to sow veggies.
The location is constantly evolving with new exhibitions, installations and initiatives, recently hosting a Mona Foma music event.
DISAPPEARING HOUSE
As drivers would historically commute to Launceston from Hobart, this heritage home on the horizon seemed to vanish from view.
Thus, the building at 12351 Midland Hwy, Conara became famous for being the “disappearing house”.
The picturesque three-storey, nine bedroom home was built in 1838 among idyllic green lawns and tidy hedges and trees.
The spot is owned by property agent Dominic Romeo, who has restored and sold several properties.
KING ISLAND WHALE TAIL
Another Grand Designs Australia episode has seen the owners of this unique home recognised in public by viewers of the show after they shared their story of a sea change from Arnhem Land to King Island, Tasmania.
Artists Andrew and Dianne Blake shared the creation of their dynamic, bright home alongside TV host Peter Maddison, later earning a spot on the host’s top list of Grandest Designs.
The large home was built on a sand dune on a scenic plot of land at King Island with the peculiar shape of the design lending itself to the name Whale Tail.
The home is instantly recognisable for its impressive, light-filled architecture.
LYNDHURST
Anyone who frequents the main road through North Hobart will recall this regal, mammoth establishment.
On the corner of Lyndhurst Ave and Elizabeth St in a shadowy corner sits Lyndhurst, which has been recognised in the Mercury’s previous lists for being one of the most significant homesteads in Tasmania.
The prolific home covers 1007 square metres of floor space on more than half a hectare of land, with nine bedrooms, five bathrooms and luxurious amenities like a heated pool and entertainment room.
The site was last sold by Derek and Hellen Chambers in 2014 for a hefty price tag, earning the couple substantial media attention for their sale at the time.
The history of Lyndhurst spans back as far as 1880 when the Mercury founder John Davies’ son Charles Davies built the property.
A large family now lives at the site.
Read more about Lyndhurst here.
BEAUMARIS HOUSE
This gothic mansion is almost as famous as the original Beaumaris zoo.
The whopping three-storey home was sold for $3.57m in 2020 after the previous owner enjoyed 20 years with the property.
Ten bedrooms, eight bathrooms and panoramic views of the city.
The exotic history of the site at Newcastle St began with Henry Llewelyn Roberts and Mary Grant Roberts in 1879.
The pair kept a number of native and exotic animals at the Beaumaris Zoo, most famously the last known thylacine.
GLENFRUIN
This mansion from the 1880s is a gem of the north, and it cost a pretty penny to purchase when it was up for sale in 2018.
Glenfruin was snapped up for $3.25m taking up a 1,500 square metre plot of land and showing off ornate chandeliers, broad windows and grand furniture and interiors.
The brick and sandstone beauty resides at Brisbane St, Launceston.
More on Glenfruin here.
WAIMEA HOUSE
This home sold for an extravagant $8.5m to Tasmanian investor Greg Woolley in 2011.
The Sandy Bay residence was Hobart’s most expensive property at the time of the mega sale.
The site covers an expanse of 9726 square metres and features a tennis court, several vacant allotments bordering Quamby Ave, and two lavish buildings on Waimea Ave.
The main building of the two includes a large pool and five bedrooms, while the second includes three bedrooms and a study.
Both buildings enjoy scenic views of the land and water.
The surrounding vibrant, rolling green gardens include a water fountain and lush trees, while the interior features ornate marble fireplaces, chandeliers, painted portraits of historical figures and elaborately decorated ceilings and walls.
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