Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar lodges DA to reinstate Elaine as a single estate

When tech billionaire Scott Farquhar bought the Elaine estate in Point Piper in 2017 for $71 million, he said he “couldn’t let this beautiful piece of Australian history be turned into a development site”.

Clearly the vendor, John Brehmer Fairfax, agreed, accepting Farquhar’s $71 million offer despite revelations since that it was $2.5 million less than what was offered by a developer at the time.

Three years later, the co-founder and co-chief executive of software giant Atlassian is set to lodge plans with Woollahra Council to do away with an earlier, six-part subdivision of the almost 7000-square-metre estate and instead re-amalgamate it as one lot with a single family home, and protecting the gardens, century-old trees and stables in the process.

“The most important thing for heritage in this part of Woollahra is the continuum of open space with runs from the council chambers, through the foreshore gardens of this property and to Fairwater next door,” said heritage architect and former chair of the Heritage Council of NSW Howard Tanner.

“It is the site and the gardens where the real heritage value lies and if there’s one thing that the council should be urgently assisting with, it is keeping this open space.”

It echoes the grandeur of the 1.12-hectare estate next door, Fairwater – also sold by the Fairfax family, to Farquhar’s Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes two years ago for $100 million.

Mr Fairfax announced his decision to sell the Elaine estate in September 2013, thereby ending continuous family ownership since it was bought by Geoffrey Evan Fairfax in 1891 for £2100.

It hit the market in 2014, but was stifled by concerns from within Woollahra Council of potential over-development of the site given it had been denied state heritage listing and was already approved for subdivision into six lots.

Despite such concerns, the following year council approved plans for four new mansions to be built on the site, opening up the property to the interest of developers and buyer syndicates.

News of the DA plans was welcomed by Christie’s Ken Jacobs, who sold it for the Fairfax family.

“The key thing that John Fairfax wanted from the sale of Elaine was to hand it to a custodian who would preserve its integrity as one of Sydney Harbour’s largest privately held estates,” Mr Jacobs said.

While Farquhar’s latest DA does not canvas his plans for the 1863-built mansion – complete with unsympathetic alterations in the 1950s and 1970s – he is expected to retain key elements of the existing house.

In recent months asbestos and lead materials have been removed from the site ahead of anticipated plans for the residence in coming months.