The Innes family home is a Batemans Bay landmark. Photos: Supplied.
A Batemans Bay landmark – built using prize money from a horse racing victory in 1926 – has been listed for sale, giving an astute buyer the chance to own a special piece of the region’s living history.
Perched high, overlooking the Clyde River inlet, the two-storey timber residence at 21A High Street has seen out its days as a guesthouse, family home, and Royal Australian Airforce lookout monitoring maritime and air activity during World War II.
Originally constructed by local sawyer Albert Ryan and his wife and finished in 1929, the house was later purchased in 1967 by Merv and Robin Innes, whose family is long known in Batemans Bay for the Innes Boatshed and successful boat hire, fishing and fish and chips businesses.
The two-storey timber residence at 21A High Street has seen out its days as a guesthouse, family home and Royal Australian Airforce lookout monitoring maritime and air activity during World War II.
Set on a landholding of more than 1000sqm, the residence is for sale, along with 1300sqm of neighbouring land at 19-21 High Street. The vendors are open to selling the properties as a combined deal or separately.
According to local historical records, the Ryans bought the block for £60 in the mid-1920s, intending to build a home there one day.
But in 1926, a stroke of luck hastened those plans when the family purchased a Tattersall’s Sweep ticket – one of only two they had ever bought – and they drew Valamita, which won the Rosehill Cup horse race, earning them £5000.
With the windfall, they transformed the site into the Ocean View Guest House, with Albert personally selecting the hardwood timbers that still shape the building’s character.
Retaining hallmarks of its vintage, the nine-bedroom, three-bathroom residence has wide verandas, Oregon skirting boards and architraves and stunning stained glass windows.
Now, after almost 60 years in the family, Steve Innes and his siblings have decided to sell their family home, ready to pass the history-rich gem over to new custodians.
“My Mum and Dad purchased the house in 1967. At that point, the house itself was completely blacked out with blackout curtains from the war,” Steve says.
“Australia went into the Depression and really nothing happened with the house until after the war. In the late 1930s the military took over the house as a lookout.
“The Ryans were living in one bedroom at the back of the house and they had a room, which worked as their bathroom, but it didn’t have any water and there was just one cold tap in the middle of the kitchen. Apparently it had been on the market for about 15 years at that point, and that’s when my parents showed an interest.
“Mum and Dad were visionary enough to see the house was solid so they bought it, but it would take two years to get it to a liveable condition.
“At the time, they were very busy with the hire boat business and the fishing that Dad was doing, plus Mum and Dad were raising the five of us kids. The house itself was just the best place for kids growing up.
“During our childhood, Mum always knew the community needed more accommodation so she used to take in boarders, so we had school teachers, bank clerks or forestry workers living with us. Mum delighted in helping all those young people. Back in early 1970s Batemans Bay was very short on accommodation so Mum used to help out.
“We have so many great memories of living there and it would be sentimental to hang onto it, but we all have our own lives, houses and families all in different places. It is an amazing house and the history of it really is something else.”
Robin and Merv Innes with their young family.
Steve says the guesthouse has made an impact on many, from those who had stayed at the iconic property to those who admired it from afar.
“My wife got talking to this lady some time ago. She was visiting from Bega and she told us she was in Batemans Bay because she had her honeymoon here back in the day,” he says.
“She went on to say she had her honeymoon in a lovely big house at the top of town – and it turns out it was our house where she had had her honeymoon!”
Craig Shepheard and Rebecca Shepheard, from Elders Real Estate Batemans Bay, are taking expressions of interest. The home can be sold with the adjoining land, or separately.
Original Article published by Nicole Cox on Zango.
