Ceres Agricultural's Garrick Hawkins puts Vaucluse trophy home up for $55m

The harbourside trophy homes lining Vaucluse’s Coolong Road have long claimed some of Sydney’s most expensive house sales, and at $55 million, the landmark designer home of agribusinessman and investment banker Garrick Hawkins and his wife, Evelyn, is no exception.

An off-market campaign was recently kicked off by Christie’s International’s Ken Jacobs amid excited speculation among trophy home hunters it could be this year’s highest sale result.

Hawkins said the sale comes as their youngest daughter finishes school and their plans to move to England where they have six grandchildren.

It also comes four months after the collapse of Hawkins’ majority owned beef, grain and wool producer Ceres Agricultural, making it the state’s highest-profile victim of the 100-year drought.

Hawkins was managing partner at stockbroker Bain & Co in 1987 when he bought the almost 1700-square-metre property from the estate of the late industrialist Sir James Kirby for $3.55 million.

The following year council approved demolition of the house to make way for a six-bedroom residence designed by acclaimed architect Andre Porebski.

That designer residence stands today, complete with interiors by designer Thomas Hamel and a floor plan that includes a library, home office, billiards room and nine bathrooms. On title there is a self-contained guest cottage, swimming pool and a separate health retreat with sauna and a gym.

Mr Jacobs confirmed the $55 million asking price this week, adding that the property boasted some of the harbour’s best boating facilities, including a jetty, slipway and boatshed.

The north-facing property is flanked by trophy homes owned by a who’s who of corporate Australia, most notably the Coolong mansion next door which set a national house record in 2008 when it was sold by the late Allco founder David Coe for $45 million to currency trader Ivan Ritossa. He later rented it to Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch while they were rebuilding their Bellevue Hill property Le Manoir.

A few doors away, Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev set a residential site amalgamation record in 2016 when he paid $79 million for four houses to create a 4200-square-metre estate on which he is currently planning to build a vast Tanner Kibble Denton Architects-designed mansion.

Also claiming title to the waterfront are Westfield’s David Lowy at the end of the street, Marco Belgiorno-Zegna, of the Transfield family, industrialist Barry Smorgon, banker Ron Malek, property developer Phillip Wolanski, and, until recently, Chinese billionaire JD.com founder Richard Liu, whose home sold late last year for $38 million.

Ceres Agricultural is one of Australia’s largest integrated beef and cropping businesses operating across 30,000 hectares of leased farmland in the state’s central tablelands and north-west slopes.

When it was placed into voluntary administration in March, Mr Hawkins said in a memo to staff that the business had become unsustainable despite his family investing “tens of millions of dollars into the business” and the drought was highlighted as a factor in its recent troubles.