Pizza pioneer’s $15m Wildhaven estate is a luxe hinterland retreat
WildHaven is a 42-hectare Booroobin compound of five residences with a resort-grade spa pavilion, guiding at $13 to $15 million.
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WildHaven is the extravagant contemporary compound of a pizza pioneer, but despite all its toppings, the hinterland hideaway has no pizza oven in sight.
High above the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast, the vast 42ha estate has been home to former CEO of Domino’s Australia, Nick Knight and his wife Noni, since the pair paid $1.313 million for a classic Queenslander on the land back in 2016.
Today, the prestige property is being marketed through Melissa Schembri and Daniel Rees of Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty with $13 million to $15 million price expectations.
Knight began his career with the fast food giant as a 13-year-old “wobble boarder” (holding advertising signs on the roadside), then worked his way up to become a large-scale franchisee. He went on to become the Australia and New Zealand boss in 2015, just one year before buying Wildhaven. Knight retired in 2021 after 20 years with the company.
Their Booroobin estate near Maleny, 90kms from Noosa Heads, is an extensive retreat built for family and friends. It consists of five separate residences and a wellness centre including hot and cold pools, a sauna, steam room, gym and an infinity edge pool with a spa.
To rival the long list of must-have holiday house ingredients, the elaborate property along the Blackall Ranges also has stunning views of the Glasshouse Mountains, and Cedar Valley and Morton Bay.
A meandering driveway winds through private parklands and native forest to reveal manicured lawns with stone terraces and sculpted gardens.
WildHaven’s four-bedroom main residence is a fusion of coastal and country design elements. Beyond the timber-clad exterior with traditional wraparound verandas, the home has a spacious footprint with a state-of-the-art kitchen featuring Miele appliances, a triple-stack oven, wine fridge, timber cabinetry, stone bench tops and a concealed butler’s pantry.
The living and dining areas are anchored by a sculptural fireplace and built-in seating, with retractable doors opening out to vast covered decks and the grand wet-edge pool.
Three self-contained, architecturally designed guest suites sit away from the primary house, all with private outdoor areas and separate bedrooms. Each features Miele kitchens, smart home automation and mountain outlooks.
Carved into the hillside, it is The Pavilion at WildHaven that sets it apart. The private spa and entertainment hub, created to rival any five-star resort, is a 305sq m chill out zone curated for rest and relaxation. There is a curved glass spa, a rain head shower, a therapeutic steam room, a full kitchen, and a sunken outdoor lounge with a fireplace.
Other entertaining features include a professional-grade gym and cinema. For adventures in the great outdoors, the estate has tranquil creeks, three dams, trails for walking or cycling, plus an adrenaline-inducing motocross track.
There are also two fenced paddocks, an orchard, as well as a large machinery shed, a 12-car garage, C-Bus smart technology throughout, automatic blinds, ducted air-conditioning, a commercial cool room and laundry, 300,000 litres of water tanks, plus a solar battery room that could take the whole compound off-grid.
Wildhaven in the Glass House Mountains is on the market with a price guide of $13 million to $15 million through Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
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