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Landmark Airlie Beach property offered for sale

PR Newswire

Sydney, Mar. 17, 2021 /Medianet/ --

Great news for yachting enthusiasts, for it’s been announced that both Airlie Beach Race and Hamilton Island Race Week will be held again in August this year. Good news too for local property sellers, with local agents reporting a strong growth in sales plus record-low rental vacancy rates. Many visiting competitors and their friends also take the opportunity to look at properties for sale, before and after the two regattas. 


Most towns have their special street from a real estate perspective – ‘the’ place in which to live and be seen in. Up in Airlie Beach that’s probably Mandalay Road. The two most noticeable properties there are Mandalay House and Chesapeake Mansion. Mandalay House, by the water down at the tip of Mandalay Road, last sold in November 2017 for around $14 million. Chesapeake Mansion on the other hand, is now listed for private sale with a more modest price tag of $3.5 million. 


Chesapeake Mansion is situated within a 76 hectare secure estate, most of which remains thickly forested and brimming with wildlife. The home features a whopping 618 square metres of internal space plus balconies and terraces on two levels. Whilst it currently features three bedrooms, additional bedrooms could be readily accommodated. Capping it all off are stunning and expansive views encompassing forested hillsides, ocean and islands, the Port of Airlie marina, and the eastern end of Airlie Beach township. 


Owner Bruce Bickerstaff noted that the web site he had created to share the story behind the property and the estate (www.airliebeach.rocks) was attracting significant interest, and that he was optimistic that a sale would occur well prior to Race Week. 


Indeed, Chesapeake mansion does have an intriguing back story, originally being proposed as a central component in an elaborate survivalist enclave, marketed as ‘Parc Exclusif’. The original development was the brain-child of eccentric New Zealander, Donald McDonald. Whilst most of the buildings Don planned to construct never eventuated, millions were spent on elaborate plans and infrastructure. 


Sadly Mr McDonald’s unusual vision didn’t appeal to the market at the time, and the financiers moved in. The entire swathe of land was later bought by Don Algie of Hog’s Breath Café fame, and subsequently renamed as ‘Chesapeake Estate’. 


The most recent sale at Chesapeake Estate was Lot 3, which was bought by Victorian horse-breeder Alan Galloway for $6.5 million in August 2020.


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