Tidal Title Deeds
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 16, 1993
ENERGETIC Raine and Horne selling agent Mark Currie suggested the Smiths Lake hide-away provided safe swimming and boating, fishing or prawning on the doorstep, or a quick boat ride across to the surf at Sandbar.
But endless lazy days sheltering in the shade were Title Deeds' temporary temptation, until the latest accounts from Turnbull & Partners arrived on the desk.
They confirmed fees from Fairfax once again underpinned Malcolm Turnbull's corporate advice vehicle, which doubled its top earner's salary to $1.2 million. His company grossed $16.2 million in the 18 months to June 1992, with$6.3 million arising from John Fairfax Group takeover matters. Without any Fairfax fees, the previous 12-month period grossed $9.3 million. In 1988, when known as Whitlam Turnbull Holdings, the company grossed $9 million from Fairfax in the wake of the privatisation.
Anyway, proving the 300 km trip from Sydney no impediment, Title Deeds notes the 655 sq m Smiths Lake homesite in question has been since snapped up by Westfield Holdings' finance director, Stephen Johns, and wife, Joanna. While not matching chairman Frank Lowy's $2.1 million annual salary, Johns managed the $167,000 purchase without selling his 2,000 Westfield shares.
OTHER than the commemorative Elvis Presley stamp sellout through local philatelists for $29.95 a sheet, nothing has been selling in Sydney for weeks. So rather than await the outcome of banking raconteur Peter Skillicorn's Potts Point property ditherings - it seems that after just 18 months he wants to upgrade from his $210,000 Meriton-built unit - Title Deeds continued cruising the coast.
BANKER Frank Conroy's $366,000 Southern Highlands shack purchase proved the only inland distraction. Title Deeds presumes it wasn't intended as his early retirement retreat from Westpac when he and wife Janette contracted to buy it early in November from David Hebden.
The 50-hectare Moss Vale grazing property, High Valley, last sold for$250,000 in 1989. In addition to their $690,000 Mosman home, the Conroys have 40 hectares at Dunns Creek, near Port Stephens, bought in 1988 for $155,000.
Back in the Westpac bunker - the lights on the executive floor where still on at 1 o'clock yesterday morning - senior officials have been casting more than a cosmetic look over Kerry Packer's latest financial reports, particularly his foreign currency balances. It seems, without the blink of an eyelid, Packer dumped almost all currencies except the US dollar, triggering$348 million in foreign exchange losses for Consolidated Press.
ARCHITECT Kevin Snell is holding out at Boomerang Beach for more than$500,000, through Raine and Horne listing agent Mark Currie, for his modern dress circle beachhouse. Seemingly warranting this price given the recent purchase nearby for $415,000 by John Hardy of Turramurra, the airy house was constructed after Snell and wife Jillian bought the block for $160,000 in 1988 as their retreat away from Kirribilli.
Snell's previous Boomerang Beach house was bought by Jonathan and Priscilla Warre of Double Bay for $242,000 in 1985. Now for sale at $650,000 through Currie, it's just along from barrister Terry Christie's six-year-old retreat.
Christie and wife Fay finally got their Mosman waterfront last year when Transnational's Frank Carmichael sold for $1.475 million. Two neighbouring Sirius Cove waterfront reserves - travel magazine publisher Geoff Bright's and property developer Jorn Osterballe's - are still for sale through L. J. Hooker Mosman's Mark Reynolds.
OVER at Blueys Beach - nicknamed 2088, Mosman's postcode - William and Susan O'Reilly's hexagonal beachfront home has sold through First National's Peter Gagg for $480,000 to John and Patricia Fitzpatrick of Maitland. Bought for $445,000 in 1989, it had an asking price of $549,000 last summer.
In a more tropical setting, Greenwich solicitor Geoffrey Sutherland, who turns 40 next month, emerged the $190,000 purchaser of a contemporary Elizabeth Beach house.
JUSTICE Mervyn Finlay's family retreat at Hallidays Point, near Crowdy Head, has been sold. Owned by family members Victoria, Peter, James and Catherine, the Glenn Murcutt-designed house went without bid at its Alan Stanton auction last September.
It then had a $375,000 asking price, although Title Deeds notes it finally fetched just $250,000 when bought by Robert Bradey and Linda Abrahams of Glenorie.
AT Port Stephens, Ray White's John Way keeps busy. Last year's $440,000 cottage sale to Bains broker Richard Gibson was even better than the $355,000 paid by Burwood solicitor Michael Radin for the adjacent cottage during the 1989 boom.
NOT much was doing at Whale Beach, although suggestions that Paul and Linda McCartney may rent Lady Renouf's home have kept voyeurs keen.
FINALLY Beverley Carver's caveat on the Cranney family's Palm Beach property lapsed last month, allowing it to be sold to Mosman estate agent Yvonne Hazell for $595,000.
Owned by Geoff and Helen Cranney of Corowa since its $62,500 purchase in 1972, the waterfront home had been passed in at August auction for $515,000.
Earlier interest from businessman Ray Sproats at $300,000 never looked a chance, but the final selling price fell a tad short of the $740,000 offered in late 1990 by Beverley, wife of elusive entrepreneur Phillip Carver.
The Carvers paid a $74,000 deposit just two months after the celebrated Occidental and Regal Insurance debacle.
After the house was damaged in the big January 1991 storm, the Carvers failed to proceed with the purchase. Supreme Court proceedings - unlikely to be heard until late 1994 - have been started by Beverley for the return of the deposit.
FARROW Corporation has sold the four-bedroom house Pamela Agostini, wife of Trindad flash Mike, bought in 1981 for $335,000.
Just why Farrow took over the $680,000 financing from the previous mortgagee, Esanda, in April 1990 - just seven weeks before Farrow collapsed with $717 million in bad debts - Title Deeds will never know. It has been sold for $700,000 to dentist Bruce Edelman and wife Christine.
Qantas staffer William Russell emerged the $460,000 purchaser of the Hon Reg Turnbull's two-storey weatherboard. The 84-year-old former maverick Tasmanian senator had his first Palm Beach summer in 1968, having bought the home from optometrist Clarence Sceats for $27,850.
PYMBLE accountant Allan Wickham and wife Anita have emerged the $460,000 buyers of Russell Goward's Industrial Equity retreat, a four-level Killcare Beach house, through Raine and Horne's Peter Nelson. Neighbours Frank Scaysbrook and Wilga Knutzelius are presumably relishing the subsequent peace and quiet.
Meanwhile the Sir Ron Brierley entourage - now enlarged by the inclusion of Christine Hogan - still sticks to Mackerel Beach which, Title Deeds notes, has experienced recent subtle shifts in ownerships, rather than the more public exoduses on the peninsula proper. Adman Wayne Garland has sold his half share to Mary Anne Parry of Greenwich for $117,000.
In 1985 Garland and three others - Phillip Putnam, Lynda Grey and Patricia Peacock - paid $130,000 for the waterfront. Land Titles Office records show Peacock got out in 1988, selling her quarter share to Garland for $32,500.
SIMILARLY Sheila Faktor, wife of Michael, the prominent United Israel Appeal Refugee Relief Fund director, sold her equity in a Mackerel Beach property, which was valued at $240,000 in 1986. Faktor's one-third equity, valued subsequently at $70,000, was split between its remaining owners, Maureen Cohen and Ruth Nathanson.
NOT much joy at Bungan Beach. Bicycle helmet entreprenuer Frank Matich has still to sell - after knocking back $1.03 million - although Pyrhic satisfaction could be drawn from estate agents Barry and Gail Florence selling their Hillcrest Avenue home for $490,000 on Christmas Eve.
The Florences, who have quit their northern beaches L. J. Hooker agency after 14 years, bought the headland property in late 1988 for $489,000. Their$1,000 windfall won't even cover Claudio Marcolongo's agent's selling fee.
CHALWIN Castle's turrets tumbled this week without a tear, leaving Peter Montgomery's Innisfallen Castle, the Castle Cove property bought in 1988 for$5.25 million, the North Shore's only medieval throwback.
Recent plans from Schwager Brooks Architects - snooker and games room, wine cellar and gym in the basement, championship tennis court and a 25-metre pool for the water polo player's property - are being considered by the Heritage Council, given Innisfallen's heritage status.
Meanwhile Chalwin Castle's owner, Rob Drury - he paid $2.05 million for the property and plans to build two homes on the 1,800 sq m Cremorne foreshore -has sold his Pretty Beach retreat. Poised above the beach, the Ian McKay-designed house - he did John Cornell's Byron Bay hotel - was bought by Cathay Pacific manager Ian Wilson and wife Pam for $400,000.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald