Moombara house, a stunning Port Hacking house built in 1881, is up for sale.
A grand mansion in Sydney’s south has come up for sale, exposing 143 years of secrets – including legends of a ghost, brushes with royalty and a turn as a Christian centre offering controversial “gay conversion” therapy.
The Port Hacking estate Moombara House, built in 1881, is one of the country’s oldest surviving houses and has been visited by the likes of Donald Bradman, Dame Nellie Melba and the Duke of Windsor.
Previous owners included parliamentarians and, later, the Allen family, founders of one of Australia’s big six law firms, along with other members of Sydney’s high society in the 20th century.
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Moombara House, pictured in the early 1900s. Picture: Sutherland Shire Library
But it’s the property’s use by a Christian group as a rehab centre in the 1970s where the property’s past takes a different turn.
Gay men who booked themselves into the centre were devout Christians who were allegedly told their homosexuality could be “treated”.
They were alleged to have been barred from doing “unmanly” tasks like cooking and were watched in the showers in a bid to prevent masturbation.
Gay rights advocate and pastor Anthony Venn-Brown, who lived at Moombara House in 1972, recalls having his luggage ruffled for disallowed items like “bikini underwear” and pink shirts.
Mr Venn-Brown, who has embraced his homosexuality in the decades since, said a minder woke him every day at 6am. He said the church leaders feared those who lay in bed in the morning would masturbate, which the leaders did not view favourably.
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Gay pastor and former resident at Moombara Anthony Venn Brown, pictured in 2015.
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“Humiliation was definitely a tactic for when one stepped out of line,” Mr Venn-Brown told The Sunday Telegraph.
“There were eight of us residing in the house there for help of various kinds. I didn’t know what as we were not to speak to each other about our ‘problems’.”
Prior to staying at the stately two-storey mansion with water views, Mr Venn-Brown had undergone an exorcism in New Zealand in the hope it would change his sexual orientation.
When it did not, he sought guidance at Moombara House, which had been converted for the dual purpose of live-in rehabilitation and weekly church services.
It was understood to be the first gay conversion centre of its kind in Australia.
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The home on Moombara Crescent has been tastefully updated, keeping the original vision intact.
There are water views.
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Mr Venn-Brown wrote in his autobiography (A Life of Unlearning – A Preacher’s Struggle with his Homosexuality, Church and Faith) that the rebab program was based on methods championed by the religious right in the US.
“The theory of reparative therapy proposes that homosexuality is environmental and caused by the lack of a strong male figure, or a father who was distant, and possibly a dominant mother.
“After breakfast I began the day by listening to tapes of the Bible, which I listened to while I read the same verses from the Bible in front of me.
“The rest of the day I was allocated chores including gardening and maintenance work … always male chores that would help me become a ‘normal’ man.”
Mr Venn-Brown soon found life stifling in the centre and eventually left, years later becoming a prominent critic of “ex-gay” therapies.
Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, pictured wife Wallis Simpson, visited the house once. Picture: Cecil Beaton
Other guests included Dame Nellie Melba.
During it’s time as a rehab centre, which reportedly also treated other groups such as those with drug problems, the property had been owned by members of a Pentecostal church, although they did not run the centre.
They held the property until 1984 when it was sold off to a new buyer, who undertook significant renovations.
JanMaree Turnbull, one of the owners in the 1990s, was reported to have claimed feeling the ghostly presence of a servant who was said to have died at the property.
Fast forward to today and the current owners, who have held the property since 2014, have listed the house with Abode Property agent Suzanne Hibberd.
No price guide has been released yet but the house could be worth be worth millions.
No price guide has yet been released, but local sources suggested the property could be worth anywhere from $4.5m-$5.5m.
Ms Hibberd, who said she was unaware of any of the history apart from recent years, explained there was nothing comparable to the grand estate anywhere in the area.
“It’s a wonderful home,” she said. “Everything is handcrafted. It’s so different to houses today. It would have required enormous money at the time it was built. It has wow factor, it’s quite amazing.”
The heritage property occupies about 1372sqm of prime land near the water. The listing boasts of wraparound verandas with “exceptional” Port Hacking views.
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