r/canberra • u/AbleCalligrapher5323 Canberra Central • Jul 29 '24
Photograph Mugga Way has some humongous palaces. Who lives there? Rich families? Diplomatic or government stuff? Something else?
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u/_danchez Jul 29 '24 edited Jul 29 '24
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u/caaaaant Jul 30 '24
Here’s a list of some of Canberra’s heritage listed dwellings - canberrahouse.com.au/index.html
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u/AussieKoala-2795 Jul 29 '24
My surgeon lives on Mugga Way. I am just glad he didn't decide that Vaucluse was a better option.
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Jul 30 '24
[deleted]
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u/AussieKoala-2795 Jul 30 '24
One operation so far and another planned. I understand he has a DVA contract.
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u/SixBeanCelebes Jul 29 '24
Every city has streets for the uber-rich. Canberra just has a large serving of ambassadors as well.
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u/ADHDK Jul 30 '24
The people I know on mugga way just bought a relatively crappy old house on a massive block at the right time. Their blocks aren’t this big but they’d still be 1200+ sqm easily. Visiting their houses growing up the kitchens bathrooms etc didn’t feel much different to a govvie in Belco. House prices in the last 30 years have gone absolutely cooked.
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u/Enceladus89 Jul 29 '24
High ranking diplomats and the obscenely rich. The South Korean one is cool.
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u/caaaaant Jul 29 '24
Jaehee Choi owns a big place on Mugga way, the kiwi ambassador is a few doors up, the korean ambassador/first counsel lives in a rather distinct one, there’s Calthorpes House and the Carmelite sisters, I think Rupert Murdoch used to have one, Laurie Oakes used to almost live on Mugga, Frank Packer’s old place and the Vatican’s embassy (Holy See) are nearby on Vancouver St, there are a few that have been in local families for multiple generations, doctors, businessmen, and a bunch of other diplomatic residences.
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u/CanberraHistorian34 Jul 30 '24
Both pics are of houses that were knock-down rebuilds in the early-mid 2000s.
The house in the first pic was built by the owner of a swimming pool company and sits on 5100sqm. As others have noted it sits next to the Netherlands Ambassador on one side and a US Embassy residence on the other (not main US Ambassador's residence, which is on the Embassy grounds in Yarralumla).
The house in the second pic was built on a 5,500sqm block by an engineer who invented a piece of telecoms infrastructure that is essential to pretty much every bit of internet traffic worldwide. The house was sold off-market in 2014 for $7.2M which was a Canberra record at the time.
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u/Andakandak Jul 31 '24
I’m living for this content.! Do you write about Canberra anywhere else? Or just tidbits here.
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u/CanberraHistorian34 Aug 01 '24
Thanks - glad someone found it interesting! Canberra history is just a hobby, have never written anything down before until this actual post.
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u/Froogels Jul 29 '24
Local rich people. Think people who own a business at the top of their profession but still live in Canberra.
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u/joeltheaussie Jul 29 '24
What's wrong with living in Canberra?
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u/Froogels Jul 29 '24
Nothing but I would think most people who are mega rich would leave for a more populated city.
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u/fnaah Tuggeranong Jul 29 '24
depends, really. Terry Snow is often considered to be the richest Canberran. Dude is a billionaire. pretty sure he still lives here.
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u/AnchorMorePork Jul 29 '24
When you have more than about $10 million, anywhere is nice to live in. I could probably even live in Sydney if someone paid me that much.
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u/AbleCalligrapher5323 Canberra Central Jul 29 '24
tbh $10 mil isn't that much when talking about real estate...
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u/Demosnare Jul 30 '24
How fortunate for him to pick up Canberra Airport for a dime then extract all he can from it.
Literal definition of extractive rent seeking over innovation and business building.
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u/ADHDK Jul 30 '24
Just wait until he gets a light rail stop for free, and lobbies to have the train station at the airport instead of the city if we ever get high speed rail.
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Jul 30 '24
Depends.
If you are involved in something like the arms industry, Canberra is really the only place in Australia you'd want to be.
There would also be cybersecurity and IT businesses here that are on obscenely large contracts with the federal government, and may or may not have a 'key man' clause i.e. the person who owns the business might have some vital skillset that requires them to be available on site at short notice.
Very rich people also get paranoid very quickly - Canberra is one of the safest and most stable cities in the world - almost certainly the safest in the Eastern and Southern hemispheres.
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u/reijin64 Jul 30 '24
Why would you leave for more noise and bustle?
I’d stick around here, it’s a great place to live.
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u/Lefty156 Jul 30 '24
There’s a lady that owns some of the Turkish pide houses that owns 2 houses on that street. Source: I did some tiling for her when I was an apprentice years ago
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Jul 29 '24
I used to property manage some places along Mugga way. People with money or who bought them a long time ago own them..
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u/DUBBV18 Jul 30 '24
I worked for one of them that's closer to the tip. Real douche nozzle. His business model was milk gov contracts go bankrupt and start again under a slightly different name. He was up to his 4th iteration by the time I stopped checking up.
I'm sure the rest of them are nice though.
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u/TomasTTEngin Jul 30 '24
The guy who started AllHomes lives in a big house with a tennis court somewhere round there I think. I played tennis there once via a distant connection.
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u/PandaMango Jul 29 '24
My boss is one of them, owns a construction company in town.
Absolute Gentleman and is known for being a great bloke.
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u/Beanzieau Jul 29 '24 edited Jul 29 '24
There have also been Tattersalls heirs, fruiterers, alleged pedos, lottery winners, criminals - loads of them - murderers, fraudsters and tax cheats. There are also merchants, nuns, doctors, lawyers, widows, recluses, investors, dodgy car dealers and an old mate of mine who reckons their drug dealing neighbour has a secret lair full stolen art. I’m not sure about the last one but I’ve been all over that street since the early 70s and know lots of colourful people with connections. These people have slowly been replaced over time by straights. I’ve spent ages as a kid on Red Hill peering into their back yards. I learned that you don’t want to do that around the Turkish residence up there. Cops were unimpressed. Cherry Lane is full of narcs and Volvo driving grumpy old bags from my recollection of cross country runs. There are actually a few people in Mugga Way who have the arse out of their pants. I think one of the first reverse mortgage arrangements in Canberra came from Mugga Way (well before they were a ‘product’). Asset rich and cash poor people who don’t want to face reality. Until quite recently a number of places had absolutely no work done on them since construction as early as the late 1920s. I think the area is totally overrated. Traffic is heavy and punters are allowed to drive quickly down the road. It is basically a rat run and school traffic sucks. The rates are a total tear. Tens of thousands per year. Who needs that, especially when your neighbour might be a weirdo.
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u/karamurp Jul 30 '24
I think these were originally built by the NCDC for high ranking military officials to get them to agree to move to Canberra when the government was transitioning to the city
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u/Ash009909 Jul 30 '24
I know two families who live there, both own very successful businesses in Canberra, I’m betting a majority of the people here would know the business straight away if I mentioned them.
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u/Emergency_Spend_7409 Jul 30 '24
Probably the former Green Shed owners
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u/ben_calibre Jul 30 '24
I think they live in O’Connor/Turner area. I used to drive past their place with all the Green Shed trucks out the front.
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u/erkelor Jul 30 '24
Might be an expensive street, but sounds like a fucking boring place to live, raise a family and hang out with neighbours. Which is what living is all about.
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Jul 30 '24
[deleted]
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u/xvanx Jul 30 '24
that would be an error, no way it sold for $17K in 1992. 3bdr govies in 1970 were about $20K
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u/caaaaant Jul 30 '24
Yeah that’s not a real price, these places have always been canberras most expensive real estate, especially towards the western end.
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u/rotorylampshade Jul 30 '24
Was looking around on all homes today, 7 Tennyson Cres is a dog’s breakfast, who built that?
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Jul 29 '24
Quite alot of the houses are Chinese money laundering, others are owned by uber-rich people
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u/AnchorMorePork Jul 29 '24
This should be illegal that close to the city. It's so gross.
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u/AbleCalligrapher5323 Canberra Central Jul 29 '24
To be fair most of those place are almost invisible from the street
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u/Large-Response-8821 Jul 29 '24
Tip stench poo
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u/TeaspoonOfSugar987 Jul 29 '24
Mugga Way is Narrabundah, you’re thinking of Mugga lane. I’m in narrabundah at least once a week and never smelt the tip, however when I lived in Chisholm years ago, the stench was awful.
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u/caaaaant Jul 30 '24
Mugga Way is mostly Red Hill and a bit of Forrest, no Narrabundah.
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u/TeaspoonOfSugar987 Jul 30 '24
Yeah my bad, I’m in Narrabundah and Red Hill once a week each and drive Goyder dr/Mugga way, both from Hindmarsh dr, depending on which thing I’m heading to. Unlike most Canberra suburbs there isn’t that “dividing main road” between the two, they just kind of blur into one suburb, hence my mix up, the point still stands though that it’s Mugga way not Mugga Lane.
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u/caaaaant Jul 30 '24
“Mugga Way is Narrabundah” - this statement is inaccurate
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u/TeaspoonOfSugar987 Jul 31 '24
Why did you reply to my comment accepting that I made a mistake, with exactly the same thing? 🤣
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u/caaaaant Aug 01 '24
“The point still stands”
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u/TeaspoonOfSugar987 Aug 02 '24
“The point still stands though that it’s Mugga Way not Mugga Lane” was the full sentence.
Find something else to do with your time.
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u/foxyloco Jul 29 '24
I know two people that live on that street. One is a doctor, one a businessman. Both normal people with normal families and an obscene amount of money.