Exclusive Brethren COVID test supplier sets $14m Hills District record

Less than a year after the son of Exclusive Brethren’s global leader Bruce D. Hales purchased a $9.5 million mansion in Dural, a member of his flock has gone one better and smashed all house price records for the Hills District.

Gavin Grace, a Ballarat-based member of the fundamentalist Christian sect and a director of laboratory equipment supplier Westlab, has paid $14 million for luxury acreage in Middle Dural, well and truly topping last year’s $12.36 million district record.

The luxury acreage in Middle Dural sold for $14 million to Ballarat-based Gavin Grace.Credit: Domain

The purchase – with no mortgage – follows Westlab’s soaring profits of recent years on the back of more than $150 million worth of federal government contracts in the past 18 months alone for the supply of medical equipment and rapid antigen test kits.

Bruce Hales is the global leader of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, and runs accountancy firm Bruce D. Hales & Co.

The two-hectare estate features a 19-room mansion designed by US architect John Henry with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, billiard room, library, home theatre, pool and a tennis court.

A source who was previously a member of the sect before they were excommunicated, suggested the property was being purchased by Hales, but settlement records show it settled in Grace’s name, and a spokesman for the Exclusive Brethren said Hales has nothing to do with it.

The two-hectare estate features a seven-bedroom residence designed by US architect John Henry.Credit: Domain

LJ Hooker Dural’s William Brush and Peter Colusso said only that the buyer came from Victoria.

But Hales is not unfamiliar with Grace and the success of Westlab. Corporate records show when Hales is not tending to the 50,000-odd members of the sect worldwide as its Elect Vessel, he has an accountancy firm Bruce D Hales & Co, and last year was appointed the auditor of Westlab.

A financial report into Westlab lodged by Hales last year shows company revenue soared an extraordinary 926 per cent in the 2022 financial year, up from $52 million in 2021 to $534 million.

Gavin Grace is the Ballarat-based director of medical supply company Westlab.Credit: Westlab

Hales’s appointment as auditor prompted probity questions as to the independence of his role given he is the global head of the sect, known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, but Grace refuted that in a statement saying the audit was undertaken by a senior auditor from Bruce D Hales & Co, and not Hales himself.

Until recently, the Exclusive Brethren were not known for their lavish taste in housing, but that changed in recent years as the Hales family have purchased some of the area’s most expensive homes, including a $9.5 million luxury estate in Dural bought by Gareth Hales.

Members maintain a strict doctrine of isolation from the modern world, shunning social interaction with “worldly” outsiders, union membership, voting and university. Further, women are banned from wearing pants, having short hair and working in a position of authority over men.

Wigram set for market

Wigram is the Longueville estate built by Colonel Wigram and currently owned by Phil and Kerry Coffey.

It looks like there are downsizing plans in play by Macquarie Group and Lendlease board member Phil Coffey and his wife Kerry given their Longueville estate, Wigram, is set to hit the market this week.

Phil Coffey retired from Westpac in 2017, and currently serves on the board of Macquarie Group and Lendlease.Credit: Elke Meitzel

This is the grand 1880-built residence built for Colonel Wigram and previously home to senior legal counsel Robert Stitt KC, long known as Blowtorch Bob, and which was previously renovated by internationally acclaimed architect Glenn Murcutt (for which he won an Australian Institute of Architects merit award).

The Coffeys paid $4.9 million for the property, complete with swimming pool, tennis court and water views towards the city, in 2002, and commissioned renovations by architect Bruce Willoughby in more recent years.

Wigram was renovated more than 20 years ago by architect Glenn Murcutt and more recently by Bruce Willoughby.

Coffey, the former deputy chief of Westpac until he retired in 2017, has handed the plum listing to McGrath’s Sam Lloyd and Tracey Dixon. There’s no guide as yet, but a recent $19 million sale of a house on Kenneth Street is expected to inspire guesstimates.

Form an orderly queue

As glamorous trophy homes go, the Vaucluse waterfront house listed this week by press scion Alexander Ma won’t go down as the best in show, but the $50 million guide should set a benchmark for tired four-bedroom houses with dated interiors and a pool on 770 square metres.

The four-bedroom house at Vaucluse is set on 770 square metres of harbourfront reserveCredit: Domain

The harbourfront position should help buyers see value, as should the $23.88 million Ma paid for it five years ago when he also bought the house next door (now reduced to rubble) for $31 million. Marketing for it was launched on Thursday by Bradfield BadgerFox’s Peter Leipnik.

Ma, the son of Hong Kong press baron Peter Ching-kwan Ma, owner of Hong Kong’s media empire Oriental Press Group, had touted plans to redevelop the site into a luxury triplex, but that development application is yet to materialise on council records.

Michael Canturi previously owned and completed the landmark Dover Heights property known as the Butterfly House.Credit: Marco Del Grande

Meanwhile, in Darling Point, home construction businessman Michael Canturi and his wife Jacqueline have paid $24.3 million for a triplex owned by travel industry veteran Col Hughes.

Canturi, who was being shown around the market by One Buyer’s Agency’s Jayden Hurvitz, purchased it through Alison Coopes, ending some 80 years of Hughes family ownership.