Gough Whitlam’s Home Sells Prior To Auction
The former Australian Prime Minister’s Cabramatta home set to be preserved.
By Terry Christodoulou
Mon, Feb 22, 2021 1:32am
< 1 min
< 1 min
Intent on preserving a part of Australian political history, former NSW Labor Premier Barrie Unsworth has led a team to purchase the Sydney home of late Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
Sold for $1.15 million (prior to auction), the achieved price was $400,000 above a guide of $720,000 – $750,000.
Resting at 32 Albert Street in the south-western suburb of Cabramatta, the property was purchased by the Whitlam Heritage Home Fund – a public company established by Mr Unsworth, Gough’s son Nick Whitlam, NSW Labor president Mark Lennon and Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey.
The Fund is focused on the restoration of the property to its original state and its preservation as a historic site, one which will eventually open to the public.
“The main thing is we have acquired it for posterity,” said Mr Unsworth in a recent interview.
Whitlam lived in the four-bedroom house for 22 years, from 1956 to 1978. The property played a central role in various political moments, including Whitlam’s historic 1972 federal election win for Labor, which came after 23 years of Liberal leadership.
Whitlam served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975.
MOST POPULAR
The Australian leather house has opened an immersive four-day pop-up in Manhattan, unveiling its Bloom Collection and redefining what a product launch can look like.
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
By Liz Lucking
Mon, Jul 13, 2026 2 min
2 min
Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
