The concrete-and-steel house, last owned by Peter Woodland of Barbeques Galore, has Pacific Ocean views and a helicopter hanger
3 min
The home of an Australian businessman who died tragically in a helicopter crash in 2022 is on the market with a A$9 million (US$5.9 million) price guide.
Peter Woodland, the late director of Barbeques Galore who purchased the expansive family estate just north of Sydney in 2017, was killed in April 2022, when his helicopter crashed in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. He was 75.
Woodland, who was a keen pilot and even installed a helicopter hanger and helipad at the residence, bought the home from acclaimed landscape photographer Richard Green, who built the unique property in Terrey Hills in the 1990s. He also died in a helicopter crash in 2015 .
The vast five-bedroom house is located in a lush native bushland setting off Mona Vale Road.
“Sitting right on the cliff’s edge, it looks right out over the bush to the water, and its proximity to the beach and even the city means it’s pretty special,” said listing agent Shayne Hutton of Sydney Country Living, which listed the home earlier this month.
Walls of fireproof glass and dozens of skylights with electronically operated Vergolas mean the natural landscape acts as a dramatic backdrop to every room. The neighbouring national park and 5 acres of landscaped gardens are met with panoramic views stretching to the Pacific Ocean.
“It’s really country living in the city. That’s the only way to describe it. This place is perfect for anyone who is just sick of crowds and wants to get away, even if it’s as a secondary property they’ll use as a weekender,” he added.
The concrete-and-steel trophy home has a Travertine-tiled entrance foyer with 20ft ceilings which leads through to two separate wings; one for living and another for sleeping. With a choice of everyday spaces, each living zone has sweeping district views and doors to the wraparound veranda.
In addition to casual living and dining rooms, there are formal entertaining areas, a library, a home office or extra family room, a professional photographer’s darkroom plus a large artist’s studio that could also be used as a poolside cabana with wet bar.
The granite kitchen has Gaggenau appliances, a grand island bench, a walk-in pantry, and an adjoining central courtyard with water features, perfect for a chef’s herb and vegetable garden.
While two bedrooms sit on the ground floor, four more occupy the upstairs accommodation level including a palatial primary suite. This parents’ retreat has a balcony, a vast dressing room plus walk-in wardrobe and a deluxe ensuite with freestanding bathtub, a double shower and twin vanities. One other bedroom features an ensuite and two more share a full family bathroom and powder room.
Outside, there are multiple entertaining terraces and courtyards, but the icing on the cake is the solar-heated pool and sun deck. Then the property’s standout feature is its state-of-the-art helipad with a fully incorporated turntable and a full-size helicopter hangar. Above the helipad, there is also a treetop viewing platform.
“A lot of people who might live on a farm have helicopters or just want the convenience to get in from the airport. It’s a great feature of the home and could be used for a variety of uses. For buyers without a helicopter, it could be an ideal car showroom,” Hutton said.
Additional features of the Terrey Hills residence include remote-controlled lock-up garages for up to five cars, storerooms, a wine cellar, ducted air conditioning, a security alarm and video intercom.
The Sydney sanctuary is surrounded by walking and biking trails, is a short drive to the transport and shopping hub of Chatswood and is an approximate 15-minute drive to local beaches.
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What a quarter-million dollars gets you in the western capital.
Alexandre de Betak and his wife are focusing on their most personal project yet.
3 min
Many luxury hotels only build on their gilded reputations with each passing decade. But others are less fortunate. Here are five long-gone grandes dames that fell from grace—and one that persists, but in a significantly diminished form.
A magnet for celebrities, the Garden of Allah was once the scene-making equivalent of today’s Chateau Marmont. Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner’s affair allegedly started there and Humphrey Bogart lived in one of its bungalows for a time.
Crimean expat Alla Nazimova leased a grand home in Hollywood after World War I, but soon turned it into a hotel, where she prioritised glamorous clientele. Others risked being ejected by guards and a fearsome dog dubbed the Hound of the Baskervilles. Demolished in the 1950s, the site’s now a parking lot.
The Astor family hoped to repeat their success when they opened this sequel to their megahit Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1904. It became an anchor of the nascent Theater District, buzzy (and naughty) enough to inspire Cole Porter to write in “High Society”: “Have you heard that Mimsie Starr…got pinched in the Astor Bar?”
That bar soon gained another reputation. “Gentlemen who preferred the company of other gentlemen would meet in a certain section of the bar,” said travel expert Henry Harteveldt of consulting firm Atmosphere Research. By the 1960s, the hotel had lost its lustre and was demolished; the 54-storey One Astor Plaza skyscraper was built in its place.
In the 1950s, colonial officers around Africa treated Mozambique as an off-duty playground. They flocked, in particular, to the Santa Carolina, a five-star hotel on a gorgeous archipelago off the country’s southern coast.
Run by a Portuguese businessman and his wife, the resort included an airstrip that ferried visitors in and out. Ask locals why the place was eventually reduced to rubble, and some whisper that the couple were cursed—and that’s why no one wanted to take over when the business collapsed in the ’70s. Today, seeing the abandoned, crumbled ruins and murals bleached by the sun, it’s hard to dismiss their superstitions entirely.
The overwater bungalow, a shorthand for barefoot luxury around the world, began in French Polynesia—but not with the locals. Instead, it was a marketing gimmick cooked up by a trio of rascally Americans. They moved to French Polynesia in the late 1950s, and soon tried to capitalise on the newly built international airport and a looming tourism boom.
That proved difficult because their five-room hotel on the island of Raiatea lacked a beach. They devised a fix: building rooms on pontoons above the water. They were an instant phenomenon, spreading around the islands and the world—per fan site OverwaterBungalows.net , there are now more than 9,000 worldwide, from the Maldives to Mexico. That first property, though, is no more.
The Ricker family started out as innkeepers, running a stagecoach stop in Maine in the 1790s. When Hiram Ricker took over the operation, the family expanded into the business by which it would make its fortune: water. Thanks to savvy marketing, by the 1870s, doctors were prescribing Poland Spring mineral water and die-hards were making pilgrimages to the source.
The Rickers opened the Poland Spring House in 1876, and eventually expanded it to include one of the earliest resort-based golf courses in the country, a barber shop, dance studio and music hall. By the turn of the century, it was among the most glamorous resort complexes in New England.
Mismanagement eventually forced its sale in 1962, and both the water operation and hospitality holdings went through several owners and operators. While the water venture retains its prominence, the hotel has weathered less well, becoming a pleasant—but far from luxurious—mid-market resort. Former NYU hospitality professor Bjorn Hanson says attempts at upgrading over the decades have been futile. “I was a consultant to a developer in the 1970s to return the resort to its ‘former glory,’ but it never happened.”
