Noosa house sells for almost $11m in deal linked to Gina Rinehart

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart was widely rumoured to be one of Noosa’s big-ticket house buyers late last year, but despite frequent visits to the glamorous holiday spot, there has been no sign of her or her vast business interests on local records to indicate where she might have stayed. Until now.

A contemporary residence on Noosa River purchased by businessman Karl Wentzel last August for $10.91 million has recently been quietly transferred to Dan Wade, the general manager of business development at Rinehart’s privately owned mining company Hancock Prospecting.

The striking residence designed by Paul Clout Design set on the prized Noosa River with a private pontoon, sandy beach and swimming pool was one of Noosa’s highest-priced sales last year, eclipsed by the $17 million purchase on Sunshine Beach by former prime minister Kevin Rudd and his businesswoman wife, Therese Rein.

Images of Wade’s newly purchased Noosa house have been removed from the internet since its most recent sale by Tom Offermann, who declined to comment when approached about the sale.

Wade’s purchase is a long way from his Perth home – a five-bedroom house that last traded two years ago for $1.66 million – but comes amid his newfound appreciation for Queensland.

In February, Wade added to his impressive directorship duties – which already include Rinehart’s majority-owned beef producers S. Kidman and Co and Australian Outback Beef – to set up his own corporate entity, Make Queensland Great.

And last August, the 47-year-old executive purchased a two-storey house just two doors from the boss’s Brisbane River property in Hawthorne for $9.9 million.

Rinehart, who topped last year’s Financial Review Rich List as Australia’s richest person worth an estimated $28.89 billion, is registered as a Perth resident on her corporate records, but her Brisbane home is one of the city’s most expensive.

The sprawling estate in Hawthorne on the Brisbane River is a consolidation of two properties; the first bought in 2014 by her investment vehicle Wingfield Avenue for a then Brisbane record of $14 million, and to which she added an adjoining block of land to the north for $4 million to create a parcel of more than 4000 square metres.

Ms Rinehart was approached for comment for this story but is yet to respond.