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For a century, Sydneysiders traversing the Bondi to Bronte walkway have marvelled at the stock-standard bungalow known as Lang Syne perched on the headland at Tamarama Beach: humble real estate set on one of Sydney’s most prized pieces of land.
More than a century before an adman based in New York bought it for $45 million cash, it was owned by a Newtown boot and shoemaker called George Frederick Wolf, who paid £1000 for the three lots that make up the 1100-square-metre parcel.
Title records show it was 1922 and the sale to Wolf included a requirement that he build a house that would cost no less than £600. He did so, completing it two years later just as Sydney’s median house price was nudging £1130.
Adman and Accenture Song chief David Droga paid $45 million for Tamarama’s Lang Syne.Credit: Domain, Louie Douvis
But a century after Wolf built his four-bedroom family home it was reduced to rubble on Thursday after bulldozers descended on the site. Waverley Council approved the demolition in January.
Just what Accenture Song chief executive David Droga has planned for the site is yet to be lodged on council records, but he told The Australian Financial Review soon after he bought it last year: “I always remember thinking, ‘That’s got to be the best piece of land in Australia.’ I was so obsessed with it growing up.”
Development has finally caught up with Tamarama’s Lang Syne as the bulldozers move in this week.Credit: Nick Moir
Given he plans to return to stay in the house each Christmas, Droga has since said he wants to build a new house designed with “restraint” and “respect”.
The fact Lang Syne remained standing for decades despite the over-development of much of the rest of the eastern beaches is in large part due to its former owner Dimity Griffiths and her late husband radio funnyman Harry Griffiths.
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