Point Piper, New South Wales

Point Piper Sydney, New South Wales
Seven Shillings Beach
Point Piper
Coordinates	33°52′14″S 151°15′3″E / 33.87056°S 151.25083°E / -33.87056; 151.25083Coordinates: 33°52′14″S 151°15′3″E / 33.87056°S 151.25083°E / -33.87056; 151.25083
Population	1,404 (2011 census)[1]
Postcode(s)	2027
Location	6 km (4 mi) east of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	Municipality of Woollahra
State electorate(s)	Vaucluse
Federal Division(s)	Wentworth
Suburbs around Point Piper: Port Jackson Darling Point Point Piper Rose Bay Double Bay Bellevue Hill Bellevue Hill

Lady Martin's Beach

Fairwater, New South Head Road, designed by John Horbury Hunt

Point Piper is a small, affluent harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 6 kilometres (4 mi) east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra.

Point Piper has been historically regarded as Australia's most expensive suburb. It is currently the second-wealthiest suburb by taxable income behind the Melbourne suburb of Toorak. In 2011, Wolseley Road was ranked as the ninth-most expensive street in the world, at $38,900 per square meter.^[2]

Location

The suburb of Point Piper sits on Sydney Harbour, beside the suburbs of Rose Bay, Bellevue Hill and Double Bay. The streets in Point Piper are: Buckhurst Avenue, Longworth Avenue, New South Head Road, Redvers Street, Saint Mervyn's Avenue, Wolseley Road, Wolseley Crescent, Wingadal Place, Wentworth Place, Wentworth Street, Wunulla Road, and Wyuna Road.^[3]

History

Point Piper was named after Captain John Piper (1773–1851). Piper was a Scottish-born military officer of Cornish parentage, who arrived in the colony in 1792 and built a neo-Palladian mansion on the point, on 190 acres (0.77 km²) of land granted by the governor in 1816. After a review of Piper's performance as head of the Customs Department showed that he had mismanaged funds (although he was not actually accused of being corrupt), Piper attempted to drown himself in Sydney Harbour. He subsequently sold his holdings at Point Piper, Rose Bay, Neutral Bay, and Petersham for £5,000 and moved to the country.

In 1834, Piper's former residence was leased by Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (1787-1873), the newly arrived Collector of Customs for New South Wales and a Crown appointee to the colony's Legislative Council. Colonel Gibbes and his family resided at Point Piper House (also known as "Henrietta Villa" or "Naval Villa") until 1844, when they moved to Wotonga, on Kirribilli Point. Wotonga now forms part of Admiralty House. Point Piper House was eventually torn down in the 1850s and the site was redeveloped.^[4]

Commercial area

Point Piper does not have a commercial area, and has few amenities or public facilities. The closest commercial areas are in nearby suburbs such as Rose Bay and Double Bay.

Beaches and reserves

• Duff Reserve, off Wolseley Road, deep water point, popular for weddings and picnics
• Lady Martin's Beach, Wunulla Road
• Seven Shillings Beach, off New South Head Road
• Redleaf Pool, off New South Head Road, on Seven Shillings Beach

Clubs

• The Scots College rowing shed, off Wolseley Road
• Royal Motor Yacht Club, 21 Wunulla Road
• Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club

Population

Point Piper, in combination with Darling Point, Edgecliff and Rushcutters Bay, was named as the wealthiest area in Australia, according to information from the Australian Tax Office in 2013.^[5]

Housing

Point Piper is home to some of the most expensive and exclusive homes in Australia. There are only eleven streets in Point Piper; the main road is Wolseley Road. The price per square meter of real estate in Point Piper is one of the most expensive in the world; property writer Cindy Martin calculated in 2002 that the total value of the properties on the 1 km waterfront section of Wolseley Road was $720 million.^[6]

John Symond's mansion on Wingadal Place, reportedly cost over $70 million to build (excluding land), easily making it Australia's most expensive, privately owned residential home.^[7] In 2007, Altona, located in Wunulla Road and Australia's second-most expensive house, was listed for more than $50 million.^[8] It was sold in 2013 for a price thought to be more than $50 million, which was a Sydney record.^[9]

Craig-y-Mor is a non-waterfront house on Wolseley Road. Australia's second-most expensive residential property, it was sold in 2008 for $32.4 million to the Chinese buyers Zeng Wei and Jiang Mei.^[10] It was previously owned by Rene Rivkin, who sold it to businessman Ben Tilley in 2004 for $16.15 million. The house has six bedrooms and a nine-car garage.^[11] The property was demolished in 2014 after the decision by the local municipality to deny this was overturned by a state judge.^[10]

Wolseley Road is the world's ninth-most expensive residential street at up to $38,000 per square meter.^[12]

Notable residents

• Frank Lowy - Westfield Group founder and boss
• John Symond - founder of Aussie Home Loans^[13]
• Malcolm Turnbull - Prime Minister and wife Lucy, businesswoman and former Lord Mayor of Sydney

Notable former residents

• Jimmy Bancks, the creator of Ginger Meggs, lived at Deloraine until 1 July 1952, when he died from a heart attack the age of 63.
• Chris Corrigan - Qube Holdings chairman
• Neville Crichton - car dealer^[14]
• Bruce Jackson (deceased) - audio engineer, who lived in the mansion Altona in his youth
• Lachlan Murdoch - businessman and wife Sarah^[15]
• Sir Frank Renouf - New Zealand financier (deceased) and wife Susan Renouf
• Rene Rivkin - stockbroker (deceased)
• Doctor Frank Tidswell and his wife Edith lived at Deloraine, next to Duff Reserve

View of Point Piper from Sydney Harbour

References

External links

Media related to Point Piper, New South Wales at Wikimedia Commons