Somerset A Winner For Johns
Newcastle Herald
Saturday February 5, 2005
KNIGHTS skipper Andrew Johns has kicked off the season with the sale of his Somerset Park house.
The league star and Merewether resident is also the face behind the marketing campaign for the Thornton housing estate known as Somerset Park, expected to soon be a suburb in its own right.He acquired the lovely, elevated 939-square-metre block with distant rural views at 18 Laurina Avenue in 2000 and built a two-level, four-bedroom house on it just over a year ago.It went on the market in October at $469,950 through Dalton Partners agent and Knights team manager Garry Callaghan and is understood to have sold for close to the asking price.Johns used the house much like a weekender, staying there occasionally.Crowe eyes mansionTHE hot goss in Singleton has Russell Crowe about to buy historic Minimbah House at nearby Whittingham.But agent Andrew McBride of Terrigal-based agency Property Central said he was unaware of the actor having personally inspected the 129-year-old mansion, although someone could have on his behalf. "He's got a brochure and so has Nicole Kidman's management," he said midweek.He was expecting an offer from a Central Coast-based group this week. An unacceptable bid made earlier in the campaign had seen that would-be buyer move on and spend $6.5 million in Jindabyne instead.The mansion on 48 hectares owned by Bliss Ryan, the former Shirley Bliss who was Miss Australia in 1954, is on the market with price expectations around $10 million.Actor's hill climbWHEN actor Sarah Wynter next visits from the US, her Cooks Hill family base is likely to have moved to The Hill.Wynter's mother Helen Williams and husband Mark Williams replaced an old cottage to build again in Bruce Street, Cooks Hill, about two years ago and are repeating the exercise at High Street, The Hill.They are seeking $888,000 for their striking classy-looking free-standing four-bedroom three-bathroom terrace-style house with ultra-modern interiors at 154 Bruce Street. On the market with Sonia Walkom of Walkom Linehans First National, it is open today from 10.30am to 11am.Heritage treasureTWO million-dollar-plus sales in Bolwarra in the past few months justify the $965,000 price tag on the glorious 1908-built "Dungaleer".Owned by solicitor Greg Murray and journalist Bronwyn Ridgway, the heritage house at 4 Paterson Road has just been listed with Kate Allen of PRD Nationwide Hunter Valley.It has had a long association with Maitland's legal fraternity having been designed by the city's lauded architect, John Wiltshire Pender, for then prominent lawyer David Logan.Ms Allen said the five-bedroom house featured in architectural books as a rare and magnificently preserved example of the Edwardian Arts and Crafts period.Recognised as one of the architect's finest works, it includes everything that makes the period special: verandas with wooden spindle work, swirling cedar joinery and pressed metal ceilings, leadlights and five fireplaces. Even the servants' bells are still working.It is set well back on its 1860-square-metre block, surrounded by private grounds with an inground solar-heated pool.The listing comes amid reports of the $1.1 million sale of the property known as the Old Priory at the corner of Bayswater and Kensington roads, Bolwarra.The suburb record was set last July when the splendid Victorian residence, Gowan-Brae, at 59 Kensington Road fetched $1.23 million, selling in a couple of weeks.Lots at LornIN nearby Lorn there has been keen interest in the last significant land release in the historic village.Seven of the 17 lots on offer at Lorn Estate sold in the first week for prices from $250,000 to $295,000.The lots, sized from 600 square metres to just under half a hectare, have been carved from one of Lorn's oldest and most prominent estates, Warrane, located on Belmore Road and Melrose Street. They are on the market for off-the-plan sales through Brian Parkinson & Co.
© 2005 Newcastle Herald
