The high-end property play was revealed through a detailed dissection of related title records,which shows the Medich family’s corporate interests took possession of about 497 hectares of Berrima farmland earlier this week for $49.687 million.
That sizeable chunk of Hume Coal’s 1300-hectare aggregation makes up the historic Mereworth property,but not an additional nine-hectare parcel across the road that instead settled for $3 million to the Simpson family’s Wylarah Pastoral Company at Crookwell.
A week before the Medich and Simpson families settled on their respective parts of the $52.687 million deal,the same land was transferred from Hume Coal’s ownership to Crown for just $33 million,translating to a $19.492 million jump in value in seven days.
The Medich’s newly acquired Mereworth property makes up about 40 per cent of Hume Coal’s 1300 hectare aggregation,but is widely regarded as the best-quality land in the deal and lays claim to the historic French provincial-style residence Mereworth,designed by architect John Amory and featuring a distinctive mansard roof.
From 1963,Mereworth was owned by the Oxley family,of Bushells Tea fame,until 2014,when it sold for $11.1 million to a mystery buyer who was later revealed to be Hume Coal.
Crown’s windfall on Mereworth was in large part possible because Hume Coal wanted the proposed mining site sold in one line,deterring buyers who had an interest in only smaller subdivisions.