Bushells Tea, Murdochs, China & Ewan Mcgregor

Altona                                              Carthona                                                    Iona

The only news that really matters in this town is property prices. One week they are up, the next down according to our scribes on the tabloids totally uninfluenced by the massive amount of advertising dollars that stream in to the dead tree press.
Naturally news today that Sydney's "most expensive house" Altona has sold for a whopping $50M plus has pulses racing. It's been snapped up by a Chinese mega millionaire 75 year old Xiuzhen Ding who also owns a splendid bay side manor in  Melbourne.

As the Shuttle has reported before, Altona in Point Piper was once owned by Rupert Murdoch's nephew Matt Handbury and his then wife Fiona. They held superb parties attended by the likes of yours truly. Fiona copped Altona in a divorce settlement, promptly sold it for a reputed $29M to publisher Deke Miskin, and then nipped off to the UK  to join the British aristocracy as Lady Dartmouth when she married William Legge the grandson of legendary romance novelist Barbara Cartland and stepbrother to the late Princess Diana.

         The Handburys                            Chris & Tracey-Ann Oxley

Just around the corner from Altona in Darling Point is a complex of 3 houses owned by one family, the Oxleys who inherited the Bushells Tea fortune. Carthona sits in the middle, a magnificent Gothic pile which Tom Cruise once tried to buy for Nicole Kidman.  On one side is Beach House and on the other is the superb new modern abode built for Christopher Oxley with, as the other two houses have, the most commanding views of Sydney Harbour that sweep from the Opera House to The Heads.

It was an appropriate location for the launch of a new LG $16K television set  launched at great expense today by LG's "ambassador", movie star Ewan McGregor. Ewan reckons this TV makes him look sensational , or as he puts it more simply :"just say that they're fucking good tellys". The tellys go on sale around the world later this year. Ewan also had some nice words to say about Baz Luhrmann who directed him in Moulin Rouge, describing his  1996 flick Romeo & Juliet as one of the "great movies of all time". Luhrmann's own house Iona, the 1880's mansion in Darlinghurst is also on the market for $15M.

Is The Family Turning on Rupert?

With perfect timing a new book has just been published by Murdoch Books- Making News by Melbourne sport's journalist Tony Wilson.

Murdoch Books is owned by Sydneysider Matt Handbury who is the son of the late Helen Handbury, Rupert Murdoch's older sister. When Sir Keith Murdoch died in 1952 he left the Adelaide Advertiser, his only newspaper to son Rupert and a small publishing firm to Helen who subsequently passed that firm on to Matt.

Matt Handbury built the company into highly successful publishers of  magazines and books selling off the magazine section in 2004 for $77M to Perth media mogul Kerry Stokes.

The London Evening Standard says Making News is a  thinly disguised novel which is highly critical of the behaviour of news-hounds in Australia and Britain

Says author Wilson : “The phone hacking scandal is right on topic for my second novel, Making  News. Phone hacking is an important part of the plot, albeit in the sense that the hacked know they’re being hacked, and deliberately spread misinformation to the tabloids in the hope of a defamation success. It’s a satire of British tabloid misbehaviour.
In the first half of the book, a young ‘weekend trainee’ learns the standard hack tricks. In the second, the trainee’s celebrity father is caught up in a sex scandal that sweeps the world, and motivates the trainee to seek revenge against his mentors. The main inspiration for the novel was a memoir by a celebrated tabloid editor.”

Matt Handbury & former wife Fiona

The diarist who penned the Standard piece says: " As a publisher, Handbury has not previously been critical of his uncle. But maybe he feels Murdoch’s days of influence and power are on the wane".

But it's been long rumoured around town that the Murdochs and Handburys aren't the greatest of friends.

Clare & Matt Handbury

The Shuttle recalls attending a party at the magnificent harbour side mansion Altona when the Handbury's owned it and asking Fiona Handbury-then married to Matt , if they would be attending the wedding of Lachlan Murdoch and model Sarah O'Hare.

"Certainly not " replied Fiona, "Matt and I are regularly forgotten when it comes to family invitations. The only one we seem to get is the annual family get-together organised by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch at Cruden Farm"

Matt and Fiona divorced in 2000 and Fiona received Altona as part of a divorce settlement promptly selling it for $29M to publisher Deke Miskin (it's currently on the market for a reported $60M).
Fiona-now the Countess of Dartmouth married William Legge, the 10th Earl of Dartmouth and the grandson of the legendary romance novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.

Matt Handbury married Clare Strang in 2002 and they now live in the beautiful council owned Bronte House overlooking Bronte Beach on a 50 year lease. Once a year they are obliged to open Bronte House's splendid gardens for public viewing.

A Recipe For Wagyu Beef From Ezekiel

That's what award winning chef Peter Gilmore told the guests last night at The Quay restaurant at a dinner to celebrate the San Pellegrino restaurant awards. Apparently the recipe was inspired the Ezekiel passages in the Bible.

Peter Gilmore

He was talking about the main dish of a lavish  banquet at Sydney's top restaurant that sits by the harbour and has spectacular views over the the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and points beyond.



The dinner for about 25 was in the upstairs dining room that was once an outlook station for pilots when The Quay was a part of the Overseas Terminal where ocean liners once berthed on a weekly basis.

Quay has again been named amongst the World's Top 5o Best Restaurants in the San Pellegrino restaurant awards. It clocked in at no 26, up one place from last year at the awards which were announced in April at the Guildhall in London.

If they dined on Wagyu beef in Biblical times like that enjoyed last night, they certainly ate well.

Three other locals came in the top 100-Tetsuyas and Marque in Sydney , and Attica  in Melbourne. The Copenhagen restaurant Norma was voted No One for the second year running (a favourite of Prince Frederick and Princess Mary of Denmark) and a Stockholm establishment- Lilla Nygatan was named as the 'one to watch'.
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Altona

For a lazy $60 million the harbour-side mansion Altona in Point Piper can be yours according to adverts that have appeared in a local Eastern Suburb's newspaper.

Publishers  Deke and Eve Miskin have just put the house on the market. They bought it from Fiona Handbury, the ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch's nephew Matt Handbury for $28m in 2002.
Fiona, who has re-married to William Legge, the grandson of the romance novelist Barbara Cartland, is now the Countess of Dartmouth and received the mansion in a divorce settlement.

The Miskins are moving to the northern playground of Byron Bay and for the past 3 years have let the house out to celebrities like  Hugh Jackman. One actor who has inspected the property with a view to buy-Russell Crowe .

discreet aristocratic entrance

      Slipping quietly into her former home town for a visit is the Countess of Dartmouth, the former Fiona Handbury who divorced the owner of media magazine empire, Matt Hanbury in 2001.Hanbury also happens to be Rupert Murdoch's nephew which has earned him the nickname-The Man From Uncle.

     When Sir Keith Murdoch died in 1952 he left one newspaper, the Adelaide Advertiser to his son Rupert who has since parlayed it into the News Corp world-wide media empire.

     Leaving a handful of small moderately successful magazines to daughter Helen, her son Matt turned them into a nation wide publishing success Murdoch Magazines which he sold in 2004 to Perth billionaire Kerry Stokes for $77M.

      Fiona, a former model who has appeared on Vogue covers around the world was once Sydney's party queen, holding court at the Handbury's magnificent Point Piper pile, Altona. The Handbury parties were the most sought after invites with Matt

(pictured right), a frustrated rock'n'roller taking to the stage with his own rock band and electric guitar.

        Altona is one of the most desired harbourside properties. Fiona once confided to tSS at one of their poolside shindigs that the Handbury and Murdoch clans aren't terribly close and only ever meet at the most formal family functions like birthday get-togethers for the Murdoch matriach Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

       As part of her divorce settlement, Fiona received Altona which she promptly sold for nearly $29M. It currently rents out to visiting celebs like Bono and actor Hugh Jackman. Jackman  has expressed a desire to purchase the house.

      Cashed up, Fiona fled the Sydney scene for rural England.

Enter William Legge, the 10th Earl of Dartmouth.and an MP of the European parliament. Friends were surprised when Legge took Hanbury for his bride, convinced he was destined for confirmed bachelorhood. Now Fiona is a regular at London society parties and across the pond in New York and the Hamptons.

There's a rumour around town that the Countess's visit may involve discussions of a financial kind. Handbury still owns a highly successful publishing company Murdoch Books which goes from strength to strength operating, from a set of magnificent offices on a huge wharf on the harbour.

   

As revealed exclusively by tSS a year ago actor Eric Bana has become the public face of Father Chris Riley's Youth Of The Streets charity which gives homeless kids  a head start with the skills needed to survive after a rough childhood. YOTS as it is called is one of Matt Handbury's favourite causes and he has purchased a country farm for the charity and is it's most feverent financial supporter. Matt currently lives in the National Trust listed Bronte House on a 50 year lease on condition he opens the superb gardens which have magnificent sweeping lawns down to Bronte beach once a year to the public.
                           As for the Countess, she divides her time between a Belgravia house and a New York apartment while the Earl attends to affairs in Brussels.

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Distant cousins ?

Belgian cartoon character Tin Tin

                                                                                            

                                                                                                              Aussie PM Kevin Rudd