Alfred Deakin’s Port Lonsdale seaside home under dispute over sale – MASHAHER

But unless the federal government, Deakin University in Geelong and other public bodies step in, the land will likely be auctioned off to the highest private bidder.

One of Deakin’s great-grandsons, Tom Harley, wants to establish a trust to buy out family members wishing to sell.

Harley said he bore no animosity towards his cousins wanting to sell the property but regretted the matter was being heard in the tribunal.

“There’s no hostility. We all speak to each other,” he said. “We’ve all shared use of the house over the years.”

Harley said the house should be preserved because of its connection to one of the most important figures in Australia’s political history.

He said the property was valued at $8.2 million and estimated he needed to raise $5 million to buy out those wanting to sell.

Harley plans to establish the Ballara Trust, which would own the property with 75 per cent of trustees to include the National Trust of Victoria, Deakin University or both.

He wants the federal government to contribute $2.5 million – in addition to $2.5 million he would need to raise privately. Harley and his brother Roger would donate their combined share of the property valued at $1.4 million to the trust, he said.

The Age contacted the lawyers of some family members seeking to sell. They did not respond to requests for comment.

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Federal Labor MP Libby Coker, whose seat takes in Point Lonsdale, said she had “been doing all that I can to help” and Canberra was “looking at the options”.

Ballara’s Victorian Heritage Register listing describes the house as an “unusually intact example of a Federation attic storeyed bungalow”, and says that Deakin worked from Ballara during “an extremely important phase in his career”.

Queenscliffe council on Wednesday promised $300,000 towards the project, contingent on involvement from Deakin University and other financial contributions.

A Deakin University spokesperson said it recognised the significance of Ballara to Alfred Deakin and the history of Australian Federation.

“Given this, and at the request of the Commonwealth government, Deakin University has indicated a willingness to play its part in ensuring the long-term preservation of Ballara for the nation,” the spokesperson said.

Alfred Deakin and wife Pattie bought the property in 1903 and completed building the house, designed by Pattie, in 1908. Council documents say the property could be opened for tourism and education purposes while the land itself hosts “rare and important” native flora.

Queenscliffe deputy mayor Ross Ebbels said Ballara should be accessible to the public. “This could be the only chance we have,” he said.

Ebbels said the property would be attractive to a developer, but the community wanted it retained. “I don’t think anyone wants that property developed. There’s too much history there.”

Lisa Neville, a former state Labor MP for the area, said the property must be somehow put into public ownership. “If it’s sold, you’ll never see a property like this again.”

La Trobe University emeritus professor Judith Brett, whose 2017 book on Deakin won Australia’s top biography award, said the house should be acquired for the public because of its strong link to Deakin, “an intensely religious man in a mystical sort of sense”.

The homes of other former Australian prime ministers acquired by the public – including John Curtin, Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke – lacked this link.

Brett said Deakin used the home to connect deeply with the landscape. “There is a way that being at the heads with its powerful rip and the independent sense of nature – that house was for him a connection with the infinite,” he said.

“It does give you insight into the sort of man he was.”

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