269 Channel Highway, Taroona

Five bedrooms
Four bathrooms
Auction, 12pm, Saturday, November 22
Located across the road from the eye-catching tower, this 4.8ha (11 acres) property has elements of its homestead that date back to the 1820s.

And 30 per cent of its interior comprises Baltic pine panels, originally used as ballast in ships plying their trade to Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land as it was originally known.

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Hobart-based Real estate agency Charlotte Peterswald for Property says the property, which is less than
a 20-minute drive from Hobart’s central business district and 10-minute car trip from the Sandy Bay shops, has a “lot of history’’ associated with it.

Charlotte Peterswald for Property director Kim Morgan says the property’s past owners read like a who’s who of Tasmania’s colonial society.

“The (Joseph) Moir family who built the 58-metre shot tower across the road (the Channel Highway) had it at one stage,” Mr Morgan says. “The oldest part of the house – the southern part of the ground floor – dates back to the 1820s when it was a labourer’s cottage.”

The sales agent says the property has had some major additions since then, becoming a double-storey Georgian home and then a three-storey house (circa 1887) with a mix of sandstone, convict brick and weatherboard.

“The current owners have had it for 25 years, so it does not come up (for sale) very often,” Mr Morgan says.

Hillgrove, with its mansard roof design, has about 40 squares (372sqm) of accommodation over its three levels as well as two outbuildings or sheds.
Mr Morgan believes the homestead’s architecture is unique on the Apple Isle because it could be argued that it is more European than colonial Tasmania, and therefore is different in many respects to surviving homes of the same era.

Perhaps the obvious example of this are the Baltic pine walls and ceilings which comprise about a third of the home’s internal shell.

“The pine first saw service as ballast in C19 windjammers servicing the fledgling Vandemonian colony,” Mr Morgan says. While it has plenty of nods to the past, Hillgrove still has enough modern features including a smart kitchen to make it very comfortable residence to live in.
 It offers five bedrooms, four bathrooms, multiple living zones including formal living and dining rooms, fireplaces, electronic hydronic heating throughout and verandas that allow the householder to take in views of the Derwent River estuary and the nearby hills and mountains.
Mr Morgan says the property is attracting attention from locals and interstaters.

“We have had interest from retired sea-changers from the mainland, a family with children from the mainland and local professionals looking for a beautiful historical home,” he says.s
“It’s not a first-home buyer’s home, yet it will appeal to a broad range of buyers from a young family through to empty nesters. I reckon we will get over a $1 million for it.”

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