Puppeteer behind Ossie Ostrich selling his waterfront home with $3.9m to $4.2m guide

The man behind Ossie Ostrich on Hey Hey It’s Saturday is selling his seaside home on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula with an asking price of $3.9 million to $4.2 million.

Comic writer and puppeteer Ernie Caroll, 91, and his partner Miffy Marsh are downsizing from their four-bedroom house at 6 Osprey Avenue, Mount Eliza after living there for more than 30 years.

The secluded waterfront property sits on a 1026-square-metre cliff-top block with panoramic views of Port Phillip Bay.

SOLD - $4,750,000

6 Osprey Avenue, Mount Eliza VIC 3930

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The property is split over two levels with floor-to-ceiling windows and has a pool and an internal lift.

Listing agent Marshall White’s James Tostevin said it had already attracted plenty of interest, with some scoping it out for a knock down and rebuild project.

“It’s got an incredibly private setting on a battleaxe block and on the cusp of the water with the beach below,” he said. 

The expression-of-interest campaign will close on Monday, November 16.

Carroll and his partner bought the property for $740,000 in 1988 at the height of Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s popularity.

The iconic variety show, with Daryl Somers at the helm and Ossie Ostrich as his sidekick, was one of the longest-running of its kind in Australia, debuting in 1971.

The show, which featured a range of segments including Plucka Duck, Chook Lotto, Molly’s Melodrama and The Nixon Tapes, ended in 1999.

The show also made international headlines on its 10-year reunion episode for airing a racist skit called The Jackson Jive, in which six performers dressed in blackface outfits.