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| Chance Lodge |
Few guests at photographer
Susie Hagon’s book launch last week at the Wagner Gallery knew who
the lady in black was although her companion,
Hal Salter from Melbourne in his jaunty red jacket and shoes is a
regular sight at racetracks around the country.
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| Hal Salter & The Duchess of Welbergen |
She was the grandly titled
Her Grace Stephanie Alesandra
Duchess of Welbergen who was visiting from Goornong near Geelong in Victoria where
she has recently set up home with her husband
David Martin.
Stephanie is a former New York stockbroker born in San Francisco
and what a home she has settled in-it’s the imposing mansion with the Roman
columns, known as Chance Lodge that comes with a horse stud and
until recently, was the home of The Voice, John Farnham
John sold up in 2009 for a reputed $2M and sadly a fire in
2010 gutted the house which the Duchess is now about to set right.
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| The Voice |
As Stephanie recently told the
Bendigo Advertiser :
“I’m
very excited to rise to the challenge,”
Stephanie says on renovating and
re-decorating the landmark six-bedroom homestead. “It’s going to be absolutely
stunning when it’s done, although I know it’s a lot of work.
Stephanie met her first husband while at University in
Greece. She eloped with Rudolf Van Welbergen, the duke and married at 19.
Unfortunately the union only lasted 2 years and her mother-in
–law frowned on Stephanie because of her ‘commoner’ status. All that is about
to change as she and David become Chance Lodge’s master and mistress with no
doubt, the grand property becoming the social focal point of the town.
**********************
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| Mary & Frederick of Denmark at Bondi's Sculpture by The Sea |
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| Zebras by The Sea |
One former commoner who has become a great hit is
HRH
Princess Mary of Denmark. She and husband
Prince Frederick attended Bondi’s Sculpture
By The Sea today and spent a couple of hours wandering amongst the strange objects,
chatting to locals and accepting the odd posy of flowers from little girls.
Three weeks ago the Shuttle dined at Ottos with a visiting NASA scientist attending a conference at the University of New South Wales and we were given a detailed description of how the Rover would descend upon the Mars surface. Speaking to a scientist about life elswhere is a frustrating process as they will never admit to anything. However after the third glass of red our expert told us that NASA has discovered hundreds of possible earth like planets but publicly admits to just a few.
