The shipping mogul leaving his multi-million dollar waterfront mansion for an RV

Peter O’Malley and wife Mary-Anne are downsizing, but not in the usual way.

They’re giving up their multi-million dollar waterfront home, effectively to live in a motorhome.

“The house is sitting here, it’s a large house so we didn’t really need it any more. We just want to be free basically,” Mr O’Malley said. “We just want to be able to go left or right at any intersection without worrying about a home to go back to.”

But they’re not just taking their RV all over Australia, they’re planning on spending 12 months over in New Zealand too, driving through the countryside in their home-away-from home.

Yes that’s right, the same motorhome they’re driving around Australia in. The couple recently founded Tranzvanz, a company that specialises in getting all the necessary paperwork done with the Australian and New Zealand governments to allow foreign motorhomes to drive with the country of origin’s registration on either country’s roads.

To top it off, they’ll organise it to be shipped across the Tasman as well, using expertise from their days as international cargo agents.

Because they’re spending a year at a time overseas setting up their new business, the O’Malley’s decided it was “unthinkable” to leave a home worth around $2 million unattended.

“It (the property) was very well maintained but it was too much money sitting there while we went away,” Mr O’Malley said.  “We were only able to [go away] for short periods of time. So we just wanted to have no schedule, no plans and go wherever we want.”

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In order to do that, they’re giving up a very lavish home. The residence sits on 1101 square metres of land, with 36 metres of water frontage at Banksia Beach, Bribie Island, and a pontoon that can moor a 19-metre cruiser.

There’s four bedrooms too, including a separate guest wing. Another popular feature with potential buyers has been the living areas, which were designed for indoor/outdoor entertaining surrounding the pool and outdoor living area.

The O’Malleys, who will keep an apartment bolthole on Bribie Island for very infrequent use, had no qualms about moving out of a 519 square metre home and into something a little smaller.

“We’ve already had boats, so we already knew how to live in a confined space,” Mr O’Malley said.

39 The Promontory, Banksia Beach, is looking for offers over $1.9 million. It’s listed with Steve Isakka of CPRM Property Group.