Camerons list historic Bentley homestead in Chudleigh for sale

The Cameron family has listed the homestead at Bentley, their 1800s property at Chudleigh in northern Tasmania, for sale since 23 October, after splitting 372 hectares of farmland off to add to a neighbouring holding. The listing covers the 22-room residence and its immediate grounds, not the wider estate the family bought for $15,776,000 when it last changed hands in March 2022. For agents working Tasmania’s top end of the rural and heritage market, it is a rare listing with a documented line to federal political history.

Why it matters

Bentley is being marketed through Circa Heritage and Lifestyle as one of the most distinguished homes in Australia, and the pedigree behind that pitch is unusual for a Tasmanian residential listing. The land was granted to English settler John Badcock Gardiner in 1829, sold to Launceston Savings Bank founding director Phillip Oakden in 1836, and passed to the Cameron family in 1866. Donald Norman Cameron built the Victorian residence that still forms the front of the house in 1879. He and his brother Cyril both went on to serve as senators, and family legend holds that the cabinet decision to make Canberra the national capital was made around Bentley’s dining table. None of that history sits on the title, but agents selling comparable rural estates elsewhere in the state will be watching how a listing this specific draws buyers, since it tests whether heritage and political provenance add a premium on top of land and building value in the current market.

The numbers

The Camerons bought the full 395-hectare Bentley estate for $15,776,000 in March 2022, acquiring it as descendants of the family that had owned the property from 1866. Four years on, they have severed 372 hectares of farming land and folded it into their neighbouring holding, leaving the homestead itself, its cobbled stables and other historic outbuildings to be sold separately. The house runs to about 900 square metres across seven bedrooms and roughly 22 rooms in total. Circa Heritage and Lifestyle agent Dominic Romeo said the previous owners had largely bought Bentley for the land rather than the house itself. “It is an amazing building and it’s quite a distinctive building,” Mr Romeo said. He expects the homestead to fetch between $7.5 million and $8.5 million, The Examiner reported. The sale runs by expressions of interest, and no buyer has been confirmed.

What’s next

Mr Romeo said enquiries since the 23 October listing have included prospective weekender buyers alongside people looking for a family home, and he described the response as genuine rather than merely curious. No closing date for expressions of interest has been released. A result inside the $7.5 million to $8.5 million estimate would put the homestead alone at about half the 2022 price paid for the full 395-hectare estate. The listing lands in the same month Launceston’s The Commercial Hotel changed hands after 18 years under one family, another sign that regional Tasmanian property is moving as long-held assets pass to new owners. For agents and valuers, Bentley’s eventual result will be a reference point for how heritage homesteads detached from their original farmland are priced once the land that once justified much of the purchase price is no longer part of the deal.