Property of the week: 16 Garema Road, Gwandalan

The 1860s Darlinghurst mansion Stoneleigh could become Sydney’s most expensive home ever sold under the hammer when it goes to auction.

Clint Ballard is giving buyers a $28 million guide for the heritage-listed mansion on Darley Street, opposite Iona, the former home of Hollywood royalty Baz Luhrmann.

Stoneleigh is being offered for sale for the first time in 36 years. The home is owned by jeweller Vanessa Wong, who took the keys in 2016, after the Wong family paid $3.18 million in 1990. Wong renovated the home shortly after taking ownership, adding a pool to its 650 sqm grounds.

A Landmark on the Heritage Register

‘Stoneleigh’ is recognised on the NSW State Heritage Register for its architectural elegance and historical significance, and remains a defining presence within the tightly held Darlinghurst Ridge heritage precinct, an enclave prized for its concentration of intact colonial and Victorian-era residences just minutes from the CBD.

While the bones of the home date to 1860, its current form reflects a considered architectural transformation by Brian Hess, with landscaping by Dangar Barin Smith, that reconciles the villa’s historic fabric with the demands of contemporary living.

Stoneleigh was added to the State Heritage Register in 1999. It features a hipped corrugated steel roof, a bank of 12 paned timber framed double hung windows to the first floor, and arched colonnade to the ground floor, all set behind a Victorian cast iron palisade fence and colonnade extends around one side of the building. 

Two of its previous owners have included Richard Jones, who was Chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney and the founder of the Maitland Mercury newspaper. He owned the home for around two decades from 1870. From the mid-1890s, J. Russell French, who was General Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, had the keys.

Grand Interiors, Resort-Style Grounds

Inside, the home unfolds across multiple levels, anchored by a statement marble kitchen with integrated dining that flows into expansive formal and informal living zones. These spaces open out to a private terrace and tropical gardens, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living in a way that’s become the calling card of Sydney’s top-tier renovations.

The outdoor offering is a standout in its own right: a 3-metre-deep mineral pool with geothermal heating anchors a resort-style entertaining garden designed for year-round use, an increasingly sought-after feature among buyers at the top of the market.

Accommodation is generous with six bedrooms in total. There are two master suites, including a primary retreat built around a Japanese Hinoki bath, along with additional bedrooms, terraces and substantial storage, a rare inclusion in an inner-city heritage home of this era.

Finishes throughout run to French Oak flooring, hand-applied Marrakech plaster walls, bespoke lighting by Michael Anastassiades and a Stuv fireplace, all supported by advanced geothermal climate control, ducted air conditioning and a full security system. A cellar on the lower ground floor houses a functioning heritage well, a genuinely rare survivor that underscores just how much of the property’s 19th-century character has been preserved.

Perhaps most notably for an inner-city heritage property, ‘Stoneleigh’ offers secure parking for up to five vehicles, a feature agents will no doubt lean on heavily, given how scarce multi-car garaging is within walking distance of the city.

Key Features

• Architecturally redesigned by Brian Hess with landscaping by Dangar Barin Smith
• Landmark c.1860 Victorian Regency residence with a refined contemporary transformation
• Resort-style outdoor living with mineral pool, geothermal heating and tropical gardens
• Designer marble kitchen with integrated dining and Sub-Zero, Wolf and Miele appliances
• Multiple formal and informal living zones flowing to an outdoor entertaining terrace
• Two master suites, including a primary retreat with a Japanese Hinoki bath, plus additional bedrooms
• French Oak flooring, Marrakech plaster finishes and bespoke lighting throughout
• Advanced geothermal heating/cooling, ducted air conditioning and full security system
• Stuv fireplace, Michael Anastassiades lighting, retractable awnings
• Secure parking for up to five vehicles — a rare inner-city offering
• Level walk to fine dining, bars, cafes and train stations; 2km to the CBD
• Moments from some of Sydney’s finest schools, including Ascham, SCEGGS and Sydney Grammar

A New Record?

The highest price ever paid for a residential house sold under the hammer in Sydney is $24.6 million, for a home in Vaucluse in September 2020.

Bidding opened at $13 million for the 1,085-square-metre block against an $11 million price guide, and the hammer fell at $24.6 million — well above the $14 million reserve. A young Australian-Chinese couple who’d never bid at auction before walkedaway with the keys. That result broke the previous auction record of $23 million, set by media scion Lachlan Murdoch’s purchase of the Bellevue Hill mansion “Le Manoir” in 2009.

Late last year, Iona, across the road from Stoneleigh, sold by private treaty for $37.5 million. It was bought by Bryant Stokes, son of the billionaire Channel 7 chairman Kerry Stokes, and his wife Dominique. It was sold by investment banker Tim Eustace and his partner Salvador Panui, who bought it from film director Baz Luhrmann for $16 million in 2015.