Greta Moran to sell Wahroonga's historic Redleaf estate after half a century

Moran family matriarch Greta, who with her late husband Doug Moran founded one of the country’s largest private healthcare empires, is set to list her historic Upper North Shore home, Redleaf.

In a family renowned for its arts patronage and a portfolio of historically significant homes, Redleaf stands not only as a monument to the work of English architect Howard Joseland, and the award-winning restoration by heritage specialist Clive Lucas in 1996, but as the family’s first major home restoration.

It was the start of an impressive obsession for the family, who now claim some of Sydney’s most historic private residences as their own, most notable among them are Darling Point’s Gothic Revival landmark Swifts, Camden’s historic mansion Studley Park and Paddington’s Georgian house Juniper Hall.

“If we hadn’t done Redleaf we wouldn’t have taken on Swifts,” Greta Moran told Title Deeds in relation to the family’s decision to buy the then dilapidated Darling Point estate for $12 million in 1997 ahead of what would be yet another expensive and award-winning restoration.

Redleaf was built in 1899 and designed by Joseland in the Federation arts and crafts style but with wide verandahs to suit the Australian climate. It was left to the Sisters of Mercy in 1948 by Violet Yuille, widow of the Dr Alan Yuille, and soon after the nuns erected petition walls in the original bedrooms and enclosed verandahs to create a 13-bedroom house for novices and retired nuns.

Greta and Doug Moran paid the church $38,400 for the property in 1967 and quickly returned it to a single-family home with 10 bedrooms for their seven children Kerry, Linda, Peter, Shane, Barbara, Brendan (deceased) and Mark.

Three years later the Morans took the first of several acquisitions to restore the original grounds by buying the cottage next door for $40,000 from Annie Fraser, then a leading decorator on the north shore. An adjoining vacant block was added in 1971 for $35,000 from former Kogarah City mayor Cecil Sweeting and another in 1984 for $130,000 to create what is now an almost 5000 square metre parcel.

While the initial 1967 house purchase was a stretch for the young Moran family at the time, their fortunes started to change rapidly in the mid-1970s.

“The game changer was when Doug developed the Baulkham Hills Private Hospital,” said Greta.

Opened on the June long weekend in 1976, Greta was asked to put aside her burgeoning art career painting under the tutelage of Archibald prize-winning artist Harry Hanke to run the 200-bed hospital.

It was a somewhat surprising about-face in career plans for Greta at the time. “I came home and announced I had been invited to work with Harry Hanke and Doug said, ‘no way. We’re opening the hospital on Tuesday and I need you to run it.’

“I don’t think Doug realized how important the hospital would be,” she said. “It proved that private enterprise could do these projects at scale. Until then, all [the hospitals and nursing facilities of this scale] had been left to the churches and charities.”

While Peter hopes another family will buy the property and enjoy it the way he and his siblings did, Greta is more prosaic: “It’ll be one less worry for people when I’m not here.”

A preliminary guide of close to $10 million has been touted ahead of the property’s official launch in coming weeks through Darren Curtis and Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International.

Road to Mandalay

Gordon’s historic residence Mandalay never quite managed to nail down an upper north shore record due to its long settlement from last year and the recent resale of Warrawee’s Bremon estate for $15 million.

But despite a refusal to comment by Christie’s Darren Curtis and McGrath’s Glenn Curran, the $14.5 million buyers of the historic Federation home have been revealed.

Niki Wenning Wang and her husband Freeman Du, of Mosman, are heading to Gordon, having bought the historic 1901-built residence of Jane and Geoff Selig, the former state president of the NSW Liberals.

Wang and Du are registered Mosman home owners, having bought on Moruben Road for $5.46 million in 2012, and since then put their developer skills from China to good use in Cremorne where they developed the Acacia block of nine apartments on Gerard Street the following year.

There’s clearly much to be said for quality restorations. Take the Killara property Poitiers that was the childhood home to former Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock after his parents Patricia and John Mortlock bought it in 1977 for $127,000 from Ruth Oldfield, the widow of Test cricketer Bert Oldfield, who was known as one of Australia’s best wicketkeepers.

The Mortlocks sold it in 2017 for $5.45 million to a Foreign Investment Review Board-approved buyer from China, Hongjuan Li, who off-loaded it six months later for $6.3 million to Alison and Anthony Kingsley, a partner at real estate fund manager Proprium Capital Partners.

Following a no-expense-spared restoration of the almost 2000 square metre home it returns to the market for $7 million to $7.5 million through McGrath’s Glenn Curran, who sold it last time.

Upgrade from Darling Point

Miki Stoliar, wife of convicted fraudster Nati Stoliar, looks to be upgrading from her Darling Point apartment given Julian Hasemer, of 1st City Double Bay, is offering it to buyers for more than $5 million ahead of a March 24 auction.

The lavishly appointed spread in the Greenoaks block of 10 is not quite of the same standard that the Stoliars became familiar with in the 1990s when they called the Elizabeth Bay Spanish mission residence, Boomerang, home, before they upgraded to Villa Del Mare in Point Piper (sold to recruitment boss Julia Ross for $21.5 million in 2004).

Nati Stoliar’s fortunes have declined somewhat since, having spent two years in a US jail after he pleaded guilty in 2014 in a federal court in Las Vegas to money laundering and wire fraud offences.

Nati returned home in 2017 and a few months later his son Ronen took up the family trade, buying a house in Rose Bay’s Spencer Street for $4.4 million that is being redeveloped into a block of four apartments, of which one is rumoured to be kept aside for Nati.

Nati’s brother Ariel also has a project in the pipelines in Bellevue Hill, where he bought a house in Drumalbyn Road for $7 million in 2018 and has plans for a block of five apartments.

Miki bought the three-bedroom apartment in Greenoaks in 2011 for $2.15 million from the Anglican Church.

Editing the portfolio

One of Australia’s most successful film editors Los-Angeles based Jason Ballantine has listed his Neutral Bay property ahead of looming tax changes that would see his capital gains exemption scrapped from July 1.

Ballantine, whose recent work includes Mad Max: Fury Road and The King’s Men, bought the arts and crafts residence in 2011 for $2.65 million, but has leased it out since 2013 following his work on Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.

Nic Yates, of The Agency, has a $4.2 million guide ahead of a March 28 auction.

First sale in 40 years

The long-held Spanish villa of Patricia Lloyd in Mosman returns to the market for the first time in 40 years with a guide of more than $16 million through Raine & Horne Mosman’s Brendan Warner.

Built in 1936 it was first owned by World War I gunner Ivan Anderson and his wife Phyllis, then throughout the 1960s by Fred and Maria Messara, family to thoroughbred horse breeder John Messara, until it was sold in 1976 to rag trader Colin Gray and his wife Janette, who in turn sold to Lloyd in 1980 for $400,000.

Lloyd paid $400,000 in 1980 for the grand Spanish villa set on a double block complete with self-contained suite and swimming pool now set in Peter Fudge gardens.

North Shore in sight

Stephen Woods, whose $20 million Panther Trust was the best performing long-only fund of 2018, is moving up the North Shore, having bought a Warrawee mansion complete with tennis court and swimming pool for $5.1 million.

Following settlement on his new digs, Woods has listed the Wollstonecraft home he bought in 2008 for $2.5 million.

Woods’s four-bedroom house is set on the prized Milray Avenue, backing on to the local trophy home Walmer House of Moelis Australia boss Chris Wyke.

Annika Bongiorno, of Stone Real Estate, is asking $4.5 million to $5 million ahead of the March 21 auction.