Aussie celeb and garden aficionado Jamie Durie has just had a mega-mansion approved to be built on a cliffside in Sydney’s northern beaches. Since none of us present here today can probably afford even a one-bedroom house anytime soon, let’s just gawk at this crazy building together, shall we?
You may know Mr Durie from such television classics as Backyard Blitz, House Rules, The Victory Garden or that super short-lived ice skating show Skating on Thin Ice that had the man (and other celebs) on a set of blades training for Disney on Ice. 2005 was a weird time, okay?
Moving on. Jamie Durie’s $2.7 million dollarydoo, six-level mansion on the edge of the northern beaches’ Pittwater has just received the green light from Northern Beaches Local Planning after a fair amount of controversy.
And yes, the house scales the fkn cliff.
Initially, Durie’s waterfront mansion was designed to be near Avalon Beach, but received over 50 public submissions from disgruntled neighbours complaining about the proposed plan.
Most of the complaints were around the number of mature gum trees that were gonna get the axe, which is an odd thing for an old-money boomer in Avalon to concern themselves with, but still a valid complaint.
As we know, Jamie Durie is a horticulturist, landscape designer and ex-super hot stripper daddy, so he just changed the plans around for himself. The stripper part probably didn’t help too much in this situation, but never underestimate the power of hotness.
The new plan (which just got approved) only received 18 negative submissions, and so the final decision was put to Northern Beaches Local Planning.
“The subsequently amended plans reduce the footprint of the building, redesign the facades and reduce the quantum of tree removal from 17 trees to 11 trees,” a report from NBLP said.
“This report, therefore, considers that the proposed impacts on vegetation are acceptable and are appropriately compensated via conditions and new plantings.”
Truly a happy ending for everyone. Jamie Durie gets his big house, and we all get to eventually look up at it when we next head to the northern beaches against our will.
I’ll be somewhere miles away with super-powered binoculars, I guess.
