Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar sold the house next door to his cofounder for $130 million

In real estate terms, Elaine, the 1863 waterfront mansion in Sydney’s Point Piper, could be described as a bit of a fixer-upper, with plenty of potential.

And that’s how Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar and his wife, venture capitalist Kim Jackson, saw it when they bought the seven-bedroom Victorian mansion, which once belonged to members of the Fairfax media dynasty, for record $71 million in 2017.

A year later that record price was pipped by his cofounder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, who paid $100 million for the house next door, Fairwater, also previously owned by the Fairfaxes.

It seemed like the two UNSW students who met in 1998 and created a $73 billion software company together, sharing the co-CEO role for more than two decades, were destined to be together, forever, but now that’s all changed.

A month after stepping down as Atlassian’s co-CEO, Farquhar has sold Elaine, for $130 million.

The sale price matches what the Farquhars paid for a 124-year-old Scottish baronial castle-styled mansion atop Point Piper, Uig Lodge, in 2022. They live there, having never moved into Elaine, which sits next to the Murray Rose (Redleaf) harbour pool and diagonally opposite Cranbrook, where Cannon-Brookes went to school.

And if some media reports are to be believed, objections to Elaine’s redevelopment from the neighbour played their part in the change of heart.

Rome-based expatriate ­architect Carl Pickering developed a $37 million renovation plan for Elaine, which gave the property a striking new facade, made a brief public appearance in 2020, before they were suddenly withdrawn from council prior to public comment.

John B. Fairfax, who sold Elaine to the Farquhars in 2017, went back into media mode at his old stomping ground when he told the AFR that: “Scott had some pretty exotic plans for the house, and I understand there were objections from Fairwater to the design”.

While Elaine has some heritage value, it’s half-demolished, has asbestos issues, is now overgrown after being unused for seven years and a long way from its glory days. The new owner, an unnamed local, could use redevelopment plans approved back when the Fairfax still owned it or perhaps they could, given Sydney’s predilection for turning waterfront land into luxury apartments the new owner could take advantage of the R3 Medium Density Residential zoning for the 7000 square-metre site and build a block of posh flats.

Maybe treasurer Daniel Mookhey could spend that money on backing NSW startups, given it’s the success of one that’s handed him such a massive windfall.