The childhood home of Australia’s greatest ever sportstar, which has been painstakingly restored is up for sale for $3m.
Sir Donald Bradman, and his near perfect performances on the cricket fields, stands clearly out from the pack as Australia’s greatest ever sportstar and as such much about the cricketing great and his life remains revered.
That includes the character-filled Bowral home, in NSW’s Southern Highlands, where he spent his formative years from ages three to 15.
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Like the nearby Bradman museum, the late Aussie skipper’s home is a pilgrimage site for lovers of the game of cricket. And after an award-winning renovation the home has hit the market ofr around $3m.
The home at 52 Shepherd St Bowral caught the attention of cricket tragic Andrew Leeming and his wife Erica 17 years ago and they decided to have a crack at restoring it.
“I told Erica there’s an interesting property here, it’s a renovation, but if you think it’s worth doing we could do something good for cricket, something good for the country, and create a lovely home to live in,” he said.
The home is best known for the watertank, Bradman famously used to hone his technique, eye and lightning fast reflexes which saw him become the best batsman in the world either side of World War II.
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The home, known worldwide, has long been considering one of Australia’s most iconic, given Bradman’s stature in the sporting world and his status as a beacon of hope during the dark times of the Great Depression.
The home could become short-stay accommodation for cricket lovers the world over, depending on who buys it.
“Built in 1890, the significance of ‘52 Shepherd Street’ is not just cultural and historical; Test cricketers and cricket lovers worldwide, have travelled to Bowral to obtain a rarefied peek inside its walls,” marketing for the home reads.
“Don Bradman lived at Shepherd Street between the ages of three and fifteen. Here, he developed his phenomenal cricketing skills by throwing a golf ball at the base of a tank stand and hitting the golf ball with a small cricket stump. Arguably, it is here where his status as the world’s best batsman was born.
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“In 2008, the centenary year of Sir Donald’s birth, the current owner commissioned a painstaking three-year renovation undertaken by Australia’s most decorated heritage architectural firm, Clive Lucas Stapleton and Partners.
“The brief: restore the home to its late 19th-century glory in meticulous, thoroughly researched detail while adding hidden, luxurious modern comforts.
“Winner of the National Trust Award for Conservation and Heritage, the house restoration was matched by the reinstatement of its garden: landscape heritage specialist Charlotte Webb transformed it back to a delightful period-perfect cottage garden filled with plants from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, with the addition of eleven Bradman rose bushes. The garden now features automatic irrigation and sensor lighting.
“Now a stunning and comfortable four-bedroom, two-bathroom period house with 12-foot ceilings, the original fireplaces have been invisibly converted to gas heating. The kitchen is a joy to cook in, featuring a gas cooktop, Ilve oven, integrated double dish-drawer dishwasher, two separate sinks, high-end fittings and fixtures and plenty of hidden storage.
“A conversion of the original stables means the garden now hosts a delightful self-contained two-room study/ rumpus/apartment with a third bathroom and kitchenette.
The home has been brought to market by Samuel Lindsay and Lisa-Marie Cauchois from Drew Lindsay Sotheby’s International Realty – Bowral.
According to PropTrack the median house price in Bowral is $1.6m. That’s down 1.1 per cent over the past 12 months.
‘The Don’ played 52 Tests for Australia between 1928 and 1948, scoring 29x100s, 13x50s and leaving the game with the peerless average of 99.94.
He died aged 92 in Adelaide in 2001.