Southern Highlands icon, Milton Park rumoured sale to Chinese property trust interests
The iconic Bowral tourism property, Milton Park has been sold, reputedly to Chinese property trust interests for around $20 million.
It last traded in 1998 when Aman Resorts supremo Adrian Zecha sold it to the Dobler family.
Milton Park, the Edwardian-style 1910 guesthouse in amazing gardens, has been internationally acclaimed. The Relais et Chateaux Group once accredited it as one of the top 50 country guesthouses in the world.
The sale of the Milton House country house hotel and spa represents the beginning of another new era for the property, although it is understood the existing Dobler family management will continue.
The Hordern family, of retailing renown, established Milton Park near Bowral in 1910 as their large private pastoral holding.
The residence, built in the style of a Federation homestead, now has 60 deluxe suites and rooms on the 20 acre estate.
The Dobler's had operated the Kirkton Park Country House Hotel before their late 1990s acquisition.
No comment has been made by the Dobler family, and it is not known if there was any hotel broker, although local agent, Bill Carpenter from W. McI. Carpenter & Associates at Bowral is understood to have been involved in the sale.
The sale price has been estimated at around $20 million.
The Dobler family retain substantial neighbouring holdings.
Rumours that the Dobler family might resurrect the original Greg Norman-designed golf course proposal for their neighbouring holding have swept the town.
It was 1990 when Greg Norman trashed his way through blackberry bushes at Milton Park planning a golf course for then owners, the Land Equity Group, headed by Serge de Kantzow.
Norman and the managing director of Land Equity Group were riding the wave of Japanese money being splashed around Australia tourism.
The Milton Park course was proposed to be very similar to Augusta National, the site of the US Masters, except the tall, towering pines.
The Milton Park estate, once judged the eighth best garden in the world, has its own microclimate.
