Australian Olympic legend Freddy Lane's home in Cremorne Point is on the market for the second time in its history

The Cremorne Point house of Olympic gold medallist Freddy Lane is up for grabs for only the second time since it was built for the champion swimmer in the 1920s.

Lane, who won two gold medals at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, is best known today for building the MacCallum Pool into the eastern side of Cremorne Point.

In the same decade that the local pool was taking shape, Lane was seeing to the construction of his home, Mordialloc.

The three-level residence was long registered with the National Trust as one of the best local examples of the work of acclaimed architect Leslie Wilkinson, but if the classic 1930s arches and columns of the three-level house look more like the style of the famed 1920s residential “skyscraper” The Astor in the CBD, there is a good reason for that.

Wilkinson never designed Mordialloc, and the trust has recently updated its records to show the house was instead designed by the architecture firm Esplin & Mould, headed by the same architects who designed The Astor, Donald Esplin and Stuart Mould.

Lane also owned the artists’ camp Curlew, established by rag trader Rueben Brasch, on the shores of Mosman where artists like Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Henry Fullwood lived and worked, which goes some way to explain how it was that the late, great painter Lloyd Rees came to paint in Lane’s cellar.

Lane died in 1969 and the house was passed on to his daughter Jean Rosalind Rubensohn, who sold it in 1979 for $230,000 to former Vogue Entertaining executive editor Sue Fairlie-Cuninghame and her husband David Fairlie-Cuninghame, a one-time partner at Touche Ross before the accounting firm merged with Deloittes.

More than 40 years later, the home retains most of its original finishes, from the detailed picture plates to the staff bells still hanging on the kitchen wall, although the cellar where Rees worked is now a 5000-bottle wine cellar.

There is a self-contained studio above the garage that was originally built for the family’s chauffeur, and the bedroom behind the kitchen was built for the maid.

The Fairlie-Cuninghames have for more than 30 years divided their time between Sydney and their Mudgee cattle farm and vineyard but, given plans to downsize permanently to Mudgee, have listed their Cremorne Point home in one of the strongest housing markets in Sydney.

Belle’s Matthew Smythe says the listing comes as three local houses have sold in recent weeks for at least $1 million more than expectations – the first of which was a 1910-built house down the road that was listed in February with a $4.5 million guide but sold prior to auction for $5.7 million.

“This isn’t a case of the agents quoting low, but the result of low stock levels and tough competition by buyers,” Smthye says.

SOLD - Price Withheld

47 Cremorne Road, Cremorne Point NSW 2090

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Smythe, and his co-agent Mark Ryan take the home to auction on May 15 with a guide of $6.75 million.