— Editorial —

Combine coastal and rural living at this rare Sapphire Coast property

Allhomes – Canberra ACT

Link to article.

— Editorial —

Pullman Bunker Bay beachfront Margaret River for sale – Cullen Royle

The Real Estate Conversation

Link to article.

— Editorial —

Mudgee Region estate Guntawang sold by Cullen Royle

The Real Estate Conversation

Link to article.

— Editorial —

The Dunes In Yorke Peninsula Is An Off-Grid Sanctuary

If South Australia didn’t seem like the obvious choice for a luxurious escape before, The Dunes in Yorke Peninsula may soon correct any/all preconceived notions. Suspended above a “boundless aquamarine seascape” right by two kilometres of “pristine, white-sand beaches”, as you’ll discover over the course of this very article, some things truly are meant to be enjoyed in privacy.

This sprawling 273-acre property located at 400 Coopers Beach Road, Nalyappa was initially constructed circa 2014 in a collaborative effort between owner Peter Michell and renowned architect Max Pritchard. Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long before the Scandanavian-inspired residence earned some recognition from the AIA (Residential Architecture) awards that same year; universally praised as “one of the most unique coastal retreat residences of its kind” in all of Australia.

“Superlatives do little to encapsulate the total privacy and solitude The Dunes provides whilst also supporting the most luxurious of lifestyles without compromise,” reads the brochure description.

“Beyond the stunning architecture, elevated views and luxurious appointment, The Dunes supports a resort-like lifestyle with an infinite scope to expand and personalise all it has to offer.”

The Dunes in Yorke Peninsula offers a total of 875 square metres across the residence, garaging, and storage building. One can expect six bedrooms, five bathrooms, spacious lounge areas, theatre, and a chef’s kitchen with two butler’s pantries. Additionally, here you’ll find an outdoor alfresco terrace with a fireplace, courtyard, pool + spa + sauna package, sun deck, shed to stash away the tools/toys, and a four-car garage next to the helipad (yes, there’s a helipad). Other notable features include a purpose-built dune buggy racetrack and an oversized workshop to “accommodate any and every bush project.”

Of course, there are certain practical trade-offs when it comes to living off-grid. Thankfully, The Dunes’ well-considered design extends beyond the resort-like amenities and so forth. In terms of self-sustaining functionality, there’s an 80-kilowatt solar power plant funnelled into lithium batteries, 300,000 litres of water storage, plus an entire host of architectural features to efficiently regulate temperature. This slice of paradise also comes with an aquaponics geodome for vegetables and herbs to provide a year-round food garden, and even more impressively, a 45,000-litre fish tank currently stocked with over 60 edible silver perch. How good’s farm to table?

“The Dunes is truly a one-off resort-style estate without peer – there is nothing that compares,” says Deborah Cullen of Cullen Royle.

— Editorial —

Centennial Coal lists 100-year old Lithgow residence “Lidsdale House

— Recognition for Excellence —

Rural Marketer of the year.

Richard Royle was awarded “Rural Marketer” of the year by the Real Estate Institute of NSW.

— Editorial —

Hawkesbury River home originally built by late stockbroker Rene Rivkin for sale with $12m guide

A spectacular oasis built by late stockbroker Rene Rivkin on the northern banks of Sydney’s Hawkesbury River has come up for sale.

The property sits on 4ha of land shared with Sentry Rock, the landmark believed to have been used by Captain Arthur Phillip as he explored the Hawkesbury in the 1780s.

Mr Rivkin built the ‘Appalachian-style’ cabin more than 20 years ago using Australian Cypress logs and it was sold a few months after his death in 2005, before reselling a further two times including in 2017 for $4.5m.

The seller is Louise Cordina of Cordina Farms, who has made substantial improvements and renovations to the Spencer property throughout her ownership. Today it has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a cinema room, wine cellar and a manager’s quarters.

“The attention to detail and the improvements the owners have made to an already great property are flawless,” Harris Iverson’s Trent Iverson said.

Mr Iverson is offering the property with Cullen Royle’s Deborah Cullen via an expressions of interest campaign. The pair have set a guide of $12m.

Mr Iverson said the property is rather unique in that it is one of a few properties in the area that easily be accessed by both boat and car.

“It is truly rare to get something like this on the river that has so few neighbours,” he said.

The downstairs living area has a massive fireplace, a wine cellar with a lodge room and a spiral staircase carved into the rock that leads to a jacuzzi and sauna.

The gardens include a lily pond, the famed Sentry Rock, sprawling lawns and a 20m man-made waterfall. There is also a World War II munitions barge used for mooring river boats.

In total, there are seven buildings on the 4ha property including a workshop, manager’s quarters, entertainment pavilion and a toilet complex.

Other features include a helicopter landing pad, two waterfalls, a pizza oven, firepit and a boat ramp alongside the 30m marina berth.

The area is encircled by noteworthy national parks abounding in Aboriginal and European history including the convict-built Old Great North Road that once connected Sydney and Newcastle.

The majority of possible buyers are expected to have a high net worth after a private estate that is within reach of Sydney.

“We’ve seen a shift in buyers who would have once been after a weekender now want something they permanently live in,” Mr Iverson said.

“It is only 90 minutes by car or 20 minute trip by helicopter to the centre of Sydney.”

Expressions of interest close on the Spencer property on December 11.

Matt Bell – The Sydney Telegraph – 16 Nov 2020

Link to Article Here

— Featured Article —

Kangaroo Island clifftop home expected to sell for the first time in more than 100 years.

Rocky Point on Kangaroo Island South Australia is for sale by Deborah Cullen of Cullen Royle.

One of the most unique – and arguably the best – beach houses in Australia, situated on a clifftop on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island with frontage to seven kilometres of stunning beach, is likely to sell for the first time in more than 100 years as it hits the market this week.

The 5.21 hectare property known as Rocky Point, which was built in 1908 and has been owned by the wealthy pastoralist Dutton family since 1918, features six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sitting room, dining room, modern kitchen with pantry and two cellars inside its limestone walls.

The property also has a large boat shed and a rare beachfront boathouse for at least two boats, plus an offshore mooring. It also has a separate two-car garage.

Over its long history it has been meticulously maintained and where appropriate, artfully updated.

Deborah Cullen, who is marketing the property for sale via an expressions of interest campaign, said the property, which had been tightly held for more than a century, was expected to generate significant buyer interest.

“Both domestic and international buyers will to be attracted to the very unique offering, particularly in the post COVID-world,” she said.

“Buyers are increasingly looking for luxury and unique properties at home in lieu of travelling overseas and as an escape from dense urban cities, particularly now with the ability to live and work from anywhere.

“Rocky Point is truly a one-off property without peer – there is nothing that compares.

“It is a private sanctuary set in a stunning natural environment, in a pristine part of Australia that is unspoiled.

“The centrepiece of this remarkable property is its breathtakingly beautiful location, situated on a clifftop, quite literally jutting out into the sea and providing unparalleled and jaw-dropping panoramic views from its verandahs.

“Rocky Point dissects seven kilometres of stunning white beach, and is situated within the island’s most protected and prime north facing bay, called Eastern Cove.

“It has an extremely rare 365 metres of beach and clifftop frontage and is freehold title all the way down to the mean high-water mark.”

Ms Cullen said Rocky Point was an exciting opportunity to purchase an asset equipped to become an exceptional generational legacy.

“There is potential to customise and add further levels of sophistication to the house if desired, with development approval for the extensions already secured.

“Renowned South Australian architect, Ian Hannaford, has designed the extensions to be in harmony with the existing limestone house and the surrounding land and seascapes.

“The design incorporates three new very large bedrooms, extensive indoor areas for relaxation, entertaining or board meetings and a children’s retreat.

“In addition to private use, Rocky Point also has the potential as a luxury tourist retreat.”

Rocky Point was commissioned to be built in 1908 by the prominent South Australian Supreme Court judge, Sir John Gordon, who was the first to see Kangaroo Island’s potential as a private and secluded getaway; a place to do nothing, or something. It was then sold to the well-known Dutton Family in 1918.

Rocky Point’s extraordinary views and lifestyle has inspired some of Australia’s greatest artists and authors. Names like John Olsen, Arthur Boyd and Sir Russell Drysdale, and writers of the ilk of Patrick White, Alan Moorehead, David Malouf and Robert Hughes have left profound words in the visitors’ books, which reads like a who’s who of Australian cultural life over many decades.

Many a Vice Regal party has often stayed at the property, with many locals in days gone by, referring to the house as “Government House”. Even Princess Diana’s father, The Earl of Spencer has stayed.

Kangaroo Island has been rated the second-best island in Australia and the Pacific by Conde Nast Traveler magazine in 2020. Even billionaire, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, has been quoted as saying; “Kangaroo Island is one of the most amazing preserves of Australian ecology, and in a global sense, one of the few totally pristine environments”.

The island – and Rocky Point – can be reached by jet, helicopter, ferry or private yacht.

The expressions of interest campaign for Rocky Point will close on 16th February 2021, unless sold prior.

Recon Daily – 17 Dec 2020

Link to Article Here

— Editorial —

Historic Singleton mansion Baroona hits the property market.

HARD on the heels of the offering late last year of Baerami House near Denman, another illustrious Hunter Valley ‘pile’ has hit the market with the listing of the Singleton district landmark, Baroona.

Known locally as ‘The Castle’ for its imposing scale and grandeur, Baroona is today owned by Singleton mining equipment manufacturer Tony Poke and his wife Gaylene, who bought it in 2011.

They are only the seventh owners to hold the property since the original homestead – extended and embellished many times since – was built nearly two centuries ago, in 1829.

For much of the intervening time, Baroona was owned by successive generations of the Dangar pastoral pioneering family, whose original family seat, Neotsfield, is close by.

Now the Pokes are looking to scale down and they have listed Baroona for sale with Deborah Cullen and Richard Royle of Cullen Royle.

Set on 33 hectares of land at Whittingham, seven kilometres south of Singleton, and 2.5 hours’ drive from Sydney, Baroona is regarded as a classic example of pastoral boom-time architecture.

It started out as a modest brick homestead called Rosemount in 1829 by John Larnach on the 1600ha Castle Forbes Estate of his employer, and later father-in-law, Major James Mudie.

The property’s transformation into the present-day grand mansion began in 1869 when Rosemount was bought by Albert Dangar, one of five sons of the colonial surveyor and pastoralist Henry Dangar.

Renaming the property Baroona, Dangar engaged the architect Benjamin Backhouse in 1871 to restore and extend the original building, resulting in two new wings being added. Further additions followed during the 1880s and ’90s, including a tower with viewing platform and spiral staircase designed by Frederick Menkens and a brick stable block by John Horbury Hunt.

Fastidiously maintained by the present owners, the homestead is of double-brick rendered construction on sandstone footings, set on a rise with views over the Hunter Valley to the ranges beyond. Entry is via a gatehouse with two bedrooms and living areas, followed by a driveway lined with jacarandas.

The house overlooks an extensive semi-circular lawn bordered by a stone wall and carriage drive, and is flanked by a swimming pool and glasshouse.

The main building has seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, formal lounge and dining rooms, a billiard room and a flagstone verandah. Upstairs is a private suite comprising a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room where the future King Edward VIII laid his head while visiting as Prince of Wales in 1920.

Internal features include cedar joinery, high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, marble fireplaces and two convict-built cellars.

The Horbury Hunt stables were the 1929 birthplace of Peter Pan, two-time Melbourne Cup winner in 1932 and 1934 for Rodney Dangar (Albert’s son).

Following a third unsuccessful tilt at the Cup in 1935, Peter Pan was retired to stud until put down after breaking a leg in 1941. He is buried on the property.

Well suited to recreational or stud horses and cattle, the property is watered by six dams, bores and a town water connection.

New boutique property agency, Cullen Royle, launches marking the start of a new trend in property services

Two of Australia’s highly experienced and trusted property agents in the luxury residential and rural sectors Deborah Cullen and Richard Royle have formed a partnership, launching a new business at a perfect time for the market, with the growing demand for property professionals with experience and tailored marketing strategies.

Deborah Cullen, who has a background in prestige residential property, and Richard Royle, whose expertise is in rural assets, have opened a new boutique property agency, named Cullen Royle.

Sydney-based Ms Cullen and Mr Royle will assist high net worth (HNW) domestic and international clients across Australia, specialising in luxury residential, lifestyle, rural and agricultural assets.

The co-principals will draw on 30 years of collective experience in real estate and long-established relationships to provide a best in class concierge-style service for their buyer and seller clients.