Mount Macedon mansion Sefton for sale, and with it a piece of Victorian history

In the peak-of-spring flush that brings the best of Mt Macedon’s available properties onto the market, Sefton is undoubtedly this season’s star attraction.

And with a price that will potentially make it one of the mountain’s priciest properties, it would want to be.

With 20 bedrooms – admittedly housed in three buildings on the 8.8 hectares of Botanic Garden-like grounds – the 1907 heritage-listed spread could possibly qualify as the trophy property in the old hill station redoubt where Melbourne’s 19th-century wealthy folk went to cool off through summer.

If not for the distant backdrop of eucalypt-covered ridges; with all the daffodils, early blossoms, the expansive lawns that host a nine-hole golf course, and the backyard tennis court, croquet lawn and kitchen gardens, Sefton could transport you to the realms of great English country house estate.

Certainly, once behind that tall hedge, and having crunched quietly over gravel on the winding drive and past neck-stretching 100-year-old beeches, maples, oaks, cedars and the odd California redwood, visiting Sefton is teleportation to a more graciously leisured time.

This one reeks of old money. For the weatherboard and multiple-gabled main house, pronounced to be “a masterful rendition of picturesque medieval”, or, more familiarly a beautifully proportioned and craftsman-detailed Edwardian weekender, was built by a Baillieu.

Specifically William Lawrence (1859-1936), of the first Australian-born generation of a vastly fecund and enduringly-influential dynasty. By 1901 he was a politician in the Victorian Legislative Council.

His main house was in Camberwell but early in the 20th century and taking up a site once occupied by Mt Macedon’s original guest house, he commissioned architectural firm Sydney Smith and Ogg to design a retreat on a flattened hill in what is now known as “the Golden Mile” of Mt Macedon Road.

The art nouveau suggestive detailing in the lyrical plaster ceilings and in the stained glass that appears throughout the rambling main house that turns out to be an exploration of 50 rooms – including, cellar, bedroom attic, library, billiard room (the old servant’s hall) and ballroom – is certainly reminiscent of Sydney Smith and Ogg’s best commercial work.

The house was passed down through the Baillieu family, to Lord (Clive) Baillieu of Sefton, and in the early 1980s (and under the auctioneer’s hammer of Baillieu Allard), it went out of private hands when it sold to Elders IXL when John Elliott and his executives used it as a country getaway and conference centre.

The ballroom became the conference room and a 10-bedroom “lodge” was built down the hill at the rear of the property.

In 2005 it was sold on for $8.17 million to the medical and health industry-related Gribbles Group. What was extremely fortuitous about these sales to big money corporations was that the property and the gardens have been maintained to a meticulous standard throughout the decades. Two gardeners still work there.

“A beautiful property,” according to JP Dixon agent Marcus Gollings. “It has everything you could possibly want.” The extra features include a resident manager’s cottage, a helipad, a pool and walking trails that lead up higher onto Mt Macedon.

While still very fresh on the spring market, Gollings reports good interest already from a mix of international, corporate and local private buyers.

What the next chapter of this already storied property becomes remains to be written.