![]() “I hope Kirsty is looking after you.” Kirsty has indeed been very attentive I expect the place would fall apart without her. I’m going to be another 10 to 15 minutes,” he says, as trees and clouds whizz overhead. I see a light blue shirt, bike helmet and AirPods as his tanned face and aquiline nose fill my screen. It’s Hemmes, who’s on his electric bike, making the half-hour commute from his office in the Sydney CBD to his home. From there, the grubby hoi polloi can rubberneck at how the privileged live.Īfter 20 minutes of waiting on the terrace, my phone rings with an incoming FaceTime call. As the property stretches down towards the harbour, there’s a pool, a hidden bath and a boat jetty, while small beach coves dot the water’s edge, forming part of the national park’s Hermitage Foreshore walk. It was bought in 1974 by their father John, a businessman of Dutch heritage and survivor of a World War II prisoner-of-war camp, and mother, Merivale, a fashion designer whose clothes were worn by celebrities ranging from Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich to Cher and Mick Jagger. This is where Hemmes and his sister Bettina, the older by nine years, grew up. Out on the harbour, ferries and yachts glide effortlessly past, while closer to land seaplanes buzz in and out, depositing well-to-do passengers at neighbouring mansions. It’s breathtaking, even on this overcast, still afternoon in May. The Hermitage, which dates back to the 1840s, has a panoramic view of the harbour and its famed bridge. I take a seat on the terrace beneath a large olive tree and wait for Hemmes. Justin Hemmes’ $100 million family home in Sydney’s Vaucluse – The Hermitage. ![]() They love being out in them with the roof down, hearing the throaty roar of their engines, much more so than travelling in the sensible black Range Rover their dad also owns. There are nine or so cars in Hemmes’ garages with number plates that identify them as JH1, JH2 … The classic muscle cars are popular with his daughters Alexa, 6, and Saachi, 4, especially the convertibles. It was once used in military parades, and can withstand landmines and a certain type of missile strike, in case you’re wondering. There’s also an ’80s Humvee, which is impossible to miss despite the camouflage paint job. Hemmes owns a collection of mostly 1960s and ’70s-era muscle cars: Mustangs, Corvettes, Cobras. Along the way we pass two garages full of cars. She leads me down a path and large sandstone steps towards the home’s entertainment terrace. At the front gate of the sprawling Victorian Gothic mansion, known as The Hermitage, I’m met by Hemmes’ housekeeper, Kirsty, who tells me he’s running late for our interview. See all 16 stories.Ī small private road winds down to Justin Hemmes’ $100 million heritage home in Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east. This story is part of the June 4 Food & Wine edition of Good Weekend.
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