THE block of land on Victoria Rd on which Betty Cuthbert’s family home sits, and where she did a lot of her early training, is for sale with an expected price tag of several million dollars.
The 1.57ha site at 736 Victoria Rd, opposite the putt putt golf centre, is being offered as a residential development site with DA approved plans for 47 new dwellings.
The property has housed the Riverview Nursery since about 1914, but an original house on the land was the Cuthbert heritage-listed home.
The family of Australia’s original golden girl has an association with the nursery dating back to 1943, according to Heritage NSW documents.
The nursery is noted as providing evidence of the early horticultural activity which characterised the Ermington, Dundas and Ryde areas at a time when they formed Sydney’s outer suburbs.
The property’s selling agent, Greg Smith, of Elders Special Projects, said Cuthbert and her three sisters and brother were raised in the house from childhood to their late teens.
Cuthbert worked for her father in the nursery and originally trained as a runner on the grounds, before going on to become one of Australia’s most successful athletes and the first to win four Olympic track and field medals, including three gold medals at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
The site, near the Marsden Rd border with West Ryde, includes 58m frontage to Victoria Rd, as well as just under 28m frontage to Fitzgerald Rd at the rear, from which the site is accessed.
Its elevated position means it has the potential to capture views, fittingly, over Olympic Park and Homebush Bay. It will go to auction on Thursday, December 2.
“It’s very difficult on such projects to identify pricing as there are so many variables,” Mr Smith said.
However, he noted the August sale of a 1.3ha property at 47-71 Stewart St and 258 Kissing Point Rd in Dundas Valley, which sold for $5.57 million, and the sale last month of 1 Pearce and 94A Spurway streets in Ermington, which spanned 5425sq m and achieved $4.03 million.
Both sites also had approval for sizeable townhouse developments.
The Cuthbert home’s original Federation features include a hipped roof clad with Marseilles tiles, white marble edges on the veranda floor and a front garden with circular path.
The arts and crafts-style nursery cottage also remains.
* Details: Greg Smith on 0425 362 121.