Palm Beach trophy home of late media legend Sam Chisholm up for grabs for $20 million

The Palm Beach trophy home Melaleuca long-owned by the late media legend Sam Chisholm has hit the market for $20 million.

The architect Susan Rothwell-designed residence is now owned by Chisholm’s Melbourne-based daughter Caroline Jumpertz, who is selling the property after 26 years of family ownership.

Set on a vast 2564 square metres at the prized Cabbage Tree Boat Harbour end of the beach, it is considered one of the glamorous holiday spot’s most prized holiday homes, positioned in between billionaire Gretel Packer’s $24 million home and the Kalua estate that sold in 2012 to retired car dealer Laurie Sutton in 2012.

Sam Chisholm was one of the most colourful figures in Australian media until he died in 2018, aged 78, having led the Nine Network during its ratings dominance of the 1970s and ’80s, and later moving to the UK to head up Sky Television.

Chisholm bought what was then a modest weatherboard house for $3.1 million in 1994 and a few years later commissioned a far more up-scale, pavilion-style residence from Rothwell.

The result is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom house set at the rear of the block behind a boatshed and has a floor plan that wraps around a north-facing pool and includes separate living areas, study, self-contained guest suite and road access from both Florida Road and Ocean Road.

Ray White’s Desiree Hough and Geoff Smith have the exclusive listing.

Melaleuca was previously owned by novelist Morris West until he sold it in 1978 for $195,000 before he went overseas, and then years later offered unsuccessfully to buy it back.

Palm Beach’s high-end housing market scored another trophy sale of more than $20 million when Dominic Roche, of the Rich List Roche family, bought the Palm Haven property on the Pittwater beachfront last year.

Jumpertz’s property is expected to be only the fourth house to crack the area’s $20 million barrier.