March 2026

The grand Victorian mansion Coonac in Clendon Road Toorak is in the real estate news because the new owner has applied to build an extension – but it’s really a second house, with entry living dining and five bedrooms and 20 car basement garage (left of first pic). It’s clearly a simple version of the main house, which in this case is ok. The Pratts did something similar to Raheen over 20 years ago, building an attached new house, but in contrasting modern style, the old house mainly used for entertaining. Which I suppose is fine, saves the house from too many changes. In this case it replaces the tennis court and pool, so the garden stays intact- it’s described as ‘behind’ though clearly more like next to. The new owner is ‘pharmaceutical billionaire’ Dennis Bastas, and when you’ve got that kind of money you can spend over $100mill for one of the largest estates in Toorak then $38mill for the extension. I wouldn’t though.

The house is in fact rather simple in style, much like many many other big late Victorian houses, with an L shaped double level arcaded verandah connecting projecting bays – but the important thing is that this is one of the first, built in 1867, when houses were usually far simpler. I can’t find a lot of confirmation of the date however, and the architect is unknown, but might have been Joseph Reed, who certainly was an innovator. I couldn’t find any pics earlier than c1900, and only one interior (from a Picton Hopkins catalogue), but apparently it has a carved timber staircase lit by a stained glass dome.

The house was sold by the very rich Paul Little and Jane Hansen, who renovated it in the 2000s. That’s them in the last pic inside the house. From 1948-1986 it was a Commonwealth rehab centre, the main reason it’s survived so intact, when most other Toorak mansion were demolished and the grounds subdivided. Hence the pics with parked cars. Second last pic is the daughter of then owners in 1932.

• Uncategorized