Ex-Melbourne Rebels Rugby Club Owner Puts 19th-Century Mansion Back up for Sale

Former Melbourne Rebels rugby club owner Andrew Cox has put his notable 19th-century house in the Australian city’s Brighton suburb back on the market with a multimillion-dollar price cut.

The grand dame, a rare Italianate mansion called Narellan, was last on the market in April 2021—amid Melbourne’s on again off again series of strict pandemic-induced lockdowns. At the time, the 1880s residence had an ambitious asking price of A$18 million to A$19 million (US$11.88 million to US$12.54 million) but failed to sell. Now, with new listing agents, Gowan Stubbings and Will Maxted of Kay & Burton Stonnington, the house has a revised price guide of A$13.5 million to A$14.3 million.

Stubbings said the expansive six-bedroom house on 1,389 square meters on Moule Avenue, just streets from Brighton Beach, is priced to sell.

The home features a long list of ground floor entertainment spaces including an elegant entry porch.
Courtesy Kay & Burton Stonnington

“It’s certainly in very good company in the caliber of A$10 million up to A$50 million homes,” Stubbings said. “Brighton, like many of Melbourne’s elite suburbs, has seen several of its historic homes modernised and changed over the years, but Narellan is an icon for the area,”.

The home’s white Italianate Victorian facade is eye-catching, Stubbings said.

“It has such a majestic nature. You can see it being one of the original Brighton landmark homes,” he said. “When I walk up to the top of the turret and take in the views over Port Phillip Bay, it takes me back to another time and I can imagine the ships coming back towards the city.”

Cox, the former Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby club owner ,paid A$5.71 million for the estate in 2006, according to CoreLogic records.

New Zealand-born Cox now runs private equity fund Imperium Capital Group, a diversified investment company that acquires small and medium enterprises mainly in the tourism, hospitality and sports management sectors.

The house also belonged at one point to powerhouse employment website seek.com.au’s co-founder Andrew Bassat.

Cox declined to comment on the sale of the property, but it is understood that during his ownership the vast two-story house has been completely updated.“It’s been very sympathetically redone for its era,” Stubbings said. “People love the big ceiling heights, the large rooms and the natural light, but it’s the kitchens and bathrooms that give it a more modern feel. It all works incredibly well together, especially when you’ve got bathrooms spilling out onto the upstairs terrace, it’s just like a luxury hotel.”

“This home has been designed so that someone can just move in and enjoy it. There’s nothing more to do. They’ve modernised it beautifully to the way we live today. I just think they’ve nailed it,” Stubbings added.

The home features a long list of ground floor entertainment spaces including an elegant entry porch and foyer leading to a large study or library, a sitting room, formal dining room, an elaborate billiard room with bar, a combined living area and a contemporary kitchen. There is also a sunroom, gym, sauna and self-contained two-bedroom guest wing with a commercial-grade kitchen.

Upstairs are six spacious bedrooms, including a main suite with bay window, private balcony, walk-in wardrobe and ensuite plus access to the unique turret with sweeping views of Port Phillip Bay and city skyline. The upper floor also houses two additional living rooms and two more balconies.

Peter Sidwell and Andrew Cox of Imperium Sports Management after becoming owners of the Melbourne Rebels, in 1995. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Outdoors, the home is surrounded by landscaped grounds with manicured hedges, rose bushes, level lawns, an alfresco barbecue terrace with fireplace as well as a pool house with a bathroom and kitchen and pool.

The period home is a short walk from the beach with sought-after schools, popular boutiques and eateries nearby.

The most convincing luxury interiors rarely need to announce their value.

Their appeal is revealed more gradually: in the weight of a door, the texture of a natural material, the proportion of the furniture or the way lighting changes the mood of a room after dark.

It is this quieter expression of luxury that has shaped the work of Charlie Rizk, founder and design director of Sydney studio Edge Design Consultants.

Established in 2006, the boutique practice works across residential and commercial interiors, offering services that range from architectural interior design and material selection to bespoke furniture, furnishing and final styling.

Its portfolio spans family homes, waterfront retreats, commercial workplaces and apartments within some of Sydney’s most prominent residential buildings. But according to the studio’s philosophy, the common thread is not a readily identifiable aesthetic.

Instead, it is an emphasis on longevity, personalisation and a close relationship between designer and client.

From the salon to the design studio

Rizk’s route into interior design was unconventional.

Before establishing Edge Design Consultants, he founded the Sydney hair salon Escapadehfb. While the two businesses operate in different creative fields, Rizk’s early career gave him experience in interpreting highly personal client briefs.

That ability to listen — and to distinguish between what a client initially requests and how they ultimately want to feel — became central to his work in interiors.

A client may arrive with a collection of reference images, favourite colours or individual pieces of furniture. The designer’s role is not simply to assemble those elements. It is to identify the underlying preference connecting them and translate it into a coherent environment.

That distinction becomes particularly important in bespoke residential design, where the success of a room is determined by more than its appearance in photographs.

The interior must accommodate routines, collections, entertaining, children, pets, privacy and storage. Materials must also be selected according to how they will perform after years of use.

A deliberately boutique model

Edge Design Consultants has remained a relatively small studio, allowing Rizk to maintain personal involvement across its projects.

For clients, that structure offers continuity. Architectural detailing, fixtures, finishes, furniture and styling can be developed as parts of the same design narrative rather than commissioned as disconnected stages.

The studio’s full-service model can begin with spatial planning and architectural interiors before progressing through mood boards, material selections, custom furniture and the final installation.

This continuity is particularly valuable on complex homes involving architects, builders, specialist trades, suppliers and landscape designers. Decisions made at the beginning of a project can affect everything that follows, from the dimensions of a custom sofa to the placement of lighting, power and joinery.

Bringing the interior designer into the process early can help prevent decorative decisions from being imposed on a largely completed building.

It also creates opportunities for furniture, art and objects to inform the architecture itself.

The case against a signature look

Many successful designers become associated with a recognisable palette or recurring visual device. Edge takes a less prescriptive position.

The studio’s work includes warm, layered family interiors as well as more restrained contemporary apartments and sharper commercial spaces. Its stated priorities are durability, considered materials and an understanding of the way each space will be occupied.

This does not mean abandoning a point of view. Rather, the designer’s sensibility is expressed through proportion, editing and consistency instead of a formula repeated from one project to another.

For affluent homeowners, this can be an important distinction. A heavily trend-driven interior may look current when completed but quickly reveal the moment in which it was designed.

An enduring home needs enough character to feel individual without becoming hostage to a short-lived fashion.

Natural stone, timber, metalwork and well-made furniture can provide that foundation, but material expense alone does not create permanence. The detailing, installation and relationship between the materials matter just as much.

Designing from the building out

Edge’s published portfolio includes residential projects in Pymble, Epping, North Rocks, Strathfield, Pyrmont and Wagstaffe, along with the furnishing and styling of a residence in Crown Sydney. A Pymble residence (below) was featured on Channel Nine’s Australia’s Best House in 2023.

The scope varies between projects.

Some commissions involve complete architectural interior design, furniture and styling. Others focus on furnishing an existing residence, where the challenge is to introduce identity without altering the underlying architecture.

A penthouse, for example, may already possess exceptional views, finishes and proportions. The designer’s task is then to create intimacy, establish visual rhythm and ensure the furniture remains appropriately scaled to the volume of the rooms.

A freestanding family home presents different considerations. Storage, circulation, durability and the relationship between indoor and outdoor areas may take precedence over creating a formal sense of arrival.

The best result is not necessarily the most dramatic. It is the one in which the architecture, finishes, furniture and objects feel as though they were always intended to coexist.

Luxury as a personal experience

After 20 years, Edge Design Consultants sits within a design market transformed by social media and unprecedented access to international references.

Clients can now identify furniture, stone, lighting and interiors from around the world before their first conversation with a designer. That access can broaden a brief, but it can also produce an overwhelming collection of competing ideas.

The designer’s role is increasingly one of curation: deciding what belongs, what should be removed and which references can be translated convincingly into an Australian home.

For Rizk, the boutique scale of Edge allows that process to remain personal.

The studio’s version of luxury is therefore not defined by a single material, brand or visual signature. It lies in the time spent understanding a client, the care with which each element is selected and the sense that the completed space belongs specifically to the people living within it.

Fact box

Designer: Charlie Rizk
Role: Founder and design director
Studio: Edge Design Consultants
Established: 2006
Location: Sydney, NSW
Services: Architectural interior design, spatial planning, mood boards, fixtures and finishes, bespoke furniture, furnishing and styling
Project types: Luxury residences, apartments, penthouses and boutique commercial interiors
Selected locations: Pymble, Epping, North Rocks, Strathfield, Pyrmont, Wagstaffe, Macquarie Park and Crown Sydney
Selected media: Australia’s Best House, Kanebridge Quarterly and Robb Report Australia
Website: edgedesignconsultants.com.au
Instagram: @edge_design_consultants