Historical Hobart house transformed from rubble to remarkable

A house built 107 years ago is rare in modern Australia.

This 1910 period property  at 12 Lambert Avenue, Sandy Bay, is also intrinsically valuable because of its elegantly landscaped 3053 square metres of prime inner Hobart land, and the painstaking extension and restoration directed by current owners Geoff and Jan Harper over the past quarter century.

Geoff laughs recalling the events leading to their fateful home purchase in the 1970s.

“Jan and I moved to Hobart so I could abalone dive, and my wife and her friends kept walking past [the property] over a period of years,” he says.

“It was derelict. I mean really, really rundown, and she said one day ‘if that place ever comes on the market, we need to buy it’.

“Well, eventually, it did and we bought it and over 14 months gutted it and rebuilt, adding a second storey, four double bedrooms, restored features, things everywhere … we used to call it Rubble Town.”

These days Geoff, whose history in Tasmanian development includes the iconic Hobart Silos project in Salamanca Place, is executive director of Linear Capital. He has also been chairman of the Tasmanian Racing Club for 14 years.

The hard-working couple had the foresight to extend vertically to create room for their children and friends, adding a sweeping hardwood staircase, which acts as a design focal point.

They were determined to keep the original home’s design features while contemporising it to suit their busy family.

Open-plan informal living space overlooks the pool and is a drawcard for entertaining at the 566-square-metre house.

Glass and natural light floods this zone to dazzling effect.

“We have had a number of parties over the years … we used to have a few good snooker nights here with the boys,” Geoff says.

“But my favourite room is probably the formal sitting room, a room we don’t spend a lot of time in, but I love antiques so it is somewhere I like being very much. In the kitchen we have incorporated 3000- to 4000-year-old timbers, all Huon pine, and some of it has distinctive marks from surviving fires. That is also a favourite place.

“It is a great lifestyle and we love this home very much but our children are adults and the time has come to downsize.”

Ant Manton, of Ray White Hobart, is marketing the property, which has a price guide of $3.1 million to $3.4 million.

If you harbour fantasies of owning a piece of Tasmanian history, this 100-year-old Federation property may also appeal.

Designed by Bernard Walker and built for the Flexmore family in 1917, The Elms is a 513-square-metre mansion set on more than 2000 square metres of land at 452 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart.

The Elms, in Elizabeth Street, North Hobart, has nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Photo: Supplied

“It is a very dignified property and looks over the city to the river or its own secluded gardens,” says sales agent Chris Huxtable, of Falls Real Estate Hobart.

Highlights include its dark timber panelling and barley twist banister.

Distinguished dark timber is a feature of the Federation house. Photo: Supplied

The house has nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Its current owners offer the property’s four downstairs suites as visitor accommodation while living upstairs.

It is for sale by expressions of interest with a price guide of $2.5 million-plus.

See more of this property at Domain