Julia Gillard puts Altona house on market
It was the home she bought as she embarked on her federal parliamentary career in 1998 – only dreaming she would one day reside in the Prime Minister’s Lodge.
Julia Gillard paid $140,000 for the modest property in the working class suburb of Altona, in Melbourne’s south-west.
But earlier this week she quietly moved out, putting the home on the market, ending 15 years in the electorate.
The former Prime Minister told Fairfax Media the home “has been a happy place for Tim and I, full of light and often full of laughter”.
She loved the “seaside village” feel of the nearby shopping strip at Pier Street and the Esplanade which runs along the front of Port Phillip Bay, she said.
Anna Grech, a senior sales consultant with the Williamstown office of western suburbs agency Jas Stephens, said while the house at 9 Medford Street is expected to sell for more than $600,000, “there is obviously a bit of history attached to the house”.
“(T)here is an intangible value to the house…” she says. “What value can you put on that?”
In 2008, Ms Gillard conducted an extensive renovation, refurbishing the existing property and adding an extension at the rear featuring a second living room, main bedroom with ensuite and walk-in-robe, and a deck.
The presence of Ms Gillard’s dog Reuben, a cross between a cavalier King Charles spaniel and a poodle given to Ms Gillard as a 50th birthday present from Mr Mathieson, remains at the house thanks to a dog flap on the back door.
Ms Grech says Ms Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson also particularly loved relaxing in the rear family room. “They loved the fireplace.”
Ms Grech said Ms Gillard loved walking around nearby Cherry Lake in the morning.
“They’d take the dog, Reuben, for a walk,” she says. “They’ve always loved the area.”
The three-bedroom brick property on a 603 square metre block became Ms Gillard’s permanent home again after Kevin Rudd’s comeback in June.
But, following news in August that the former PM and Mr Mathieson had reportedly spent $1.8 million on a beachside property in Adelaide, it will be auctioned in December.
The house, which has been emptied of Ms Gillard’s things but filled with hired furnishings in the lead-up to the auction, was also the setting for a photograph taken in the mid-2000s which depicted Ms Gillard sitting at her kitchen table and subsequently sparked a public discussion about her empty fruitbowl.
The spotlessness of her kitchen led to much discussion about her then-status as single and child-free.
The green cupboards seen in that image are gone – the kitchen was remodelled in the 2008 renovation and now boasts an island bench and stainless steel appliances.
The house, which also comes with a single car lock-up garage, will be auctioned on December 14 at 2pm.
The first open-for-inspection takes place on November 23 – with plenty of people likely to turn up for a stickybeak.
