Whale Beach's largest private landholder offers Carramar Estate for $9.9m

John Jenkins never set out to become the owner of the largest private landholding on the exclusive Palm Beach-Whale Beach peninsula, but in his pursuit of privacy and in a bid to protect the neighbouring trees from being chopped down, that’s what he’s become.

Forty-two years after the former flight attendant bought a rundown cottage in Whale Beach, he has amassed 1.1279 hectares of bushland that extends from above the surf beach on Whale Beach Road over the hill and down to Barrenjoey Road in Palm Beach.

But this is likely to be the 77-year-old’s last summer at his Carramar Estate in the well-heeled holiday enclave, given plans to sell the lot for $9.9 million.

“It’s just too expensive to maintain your own private nature sanctuary, especially for a retired flight attendant, and I can use the money better elsewhere,” Mr Jenkins said.

Records show Mr Jenkins bought the first of four blocks in 1976 for $48,000 from the estate of the Douglas Lamb Wines family, who had used it as a holiday home.

“The place was a wreck,” Mr Jenkins said. “There had been hippies and squatters living in the house and things like the plumbing and electrics were a mess.”

Three years later he bought the adjoining block for $48,000 to protect their privacy and because the neighbours kept chopping down the trees. 

“We were privacy freaks, and because I spent so many nights away living in hotel rooms and serving people in my work, I wanted to come home to something totally different,” Mr Jenkins said.

In 1995 the block at the rear of the property with a house off Barrenjoey Road was added for $305,000 and the vacant block next door in 2002 for $800,000.

In the 16 years since Mr Jenkins’ last acquisition, values locally have soared: up 212 per cent in Whale Beach and 156 per cent in Palm Beach.

This year alone there have been four double-digit sales, the highest of which was $18 million in July when fund manager Rob Luciano, and his wife Samantha, bought a recently built luxury residence on 911 square metres from Hardie Grant chairman John Geraghty.

Selling agent Shane Clinton launches Carramar Estate to buyers this week through Noel Nicholson’s Ray White Prestige Palm Beach.

Jenkins is hoping a nature lover will buy the estate but concedes the subdivision and redevelopment appeal is likely to be one of the biggest attractions.

Given that, there are already concept plans for 10 separate lots with a nature corridor extending over both sides of the hill. 

The Carramar land amalgamation dwarfs the largest estates in Palm Beach and Whale Beach. The nearest comparable in terms of size is Kalua at Palm Beach, on 5500 square metres, which is about half the size of Carramar. It was bought by car dealer Laurie Sutton in 2012 for $22 million.

Two doors away is the Packer family compound, commanding almost 4000 square metres, that was transferred to Gretel Packer on Christmas Eve in 2015 for $24 million.

Warrabah is a 5300-square-metre consolidation of two blocks on Palm Beach’s Pacific Road bought by the Fisher family in 1997 for $2.66 million.

The only larger estate nearby is Marara in Avalon bought for $15 million in 2004 by Mortgage Choice founder Peter Higgins and covering 1.27 hectares. It has been for sale in recent years for $32 million and includes three houses, two boathouses, a private wharf, slipway and 120 metres of private beach.

“This is not only one of the largest land holdings in the area that crosses from Palm Beach to Whale Beach but is also a completely undeveloped canvas for environmentally friendly development,” said Mr Clinton.