SWIFTS' PARTY NEST RUFFLES FEATHERS [watches]
RESIDENTS of an exclusive Sydney enclave are up in arms over one of Australia's best known homes, which they claim has become a noisy party pad.
Swifts historic mansion in Darling Point (pictured) is increasingly being used for soirees, from Lady Primrose Potter's 80th birthday party and fashion extravaganzas to magazine launches. Next week there's a Melbourne Cup party for 300 people, where Rolling Stone Keith Richards's daughter Alexandra will be celebrity guest DJ.
The parties, which cost organisers up to $20,000 to hire the mansion, are all part of co-owner Kerry Jones's ambition to ''open up the house'' after it sat idle for generations.
Jones and her brother Shane Moran were given the $50 million-plus home last year by their healthcare magnate parents, Doug and Greta Moran, after years of estrangement and feuding over the family fortune.
Jones said the events were to raise money for charity and said neighbours' complaints were ''churlish''.
Neighbours complain Swifts has become a fully fledged function centre, with a large kitchen installed recently, although Jones said it was merely an upgrade of the existing facilities. Woollahra Municipal Council has not received a development application for a new kitchen, but its director of planning, Allan Coker , is making a site inspection next week.
The only DA submitted by Swifts is for a fair on November 18-20 but the Darling Point Society has lodged an objection.
''We already have Lindesay House not very far away having its own antiques' fair on the same days,'' the society's president, Charlotte Feldman told PS. ''What happens at Lindesay is done in a controlled way because the council restricts what can happen there and how often it can happen. Swifts seems to have no restrictions at all.''
Jones said: ''This is a private residence. If we want to have a party here we can. The money from hiring the house covers the costs associated with putting on these events, with the balance going to charity.''
Swifts historic mansion in Darling Point (pictured) is increasingly being used for soirees, from Lady Primrose Potter's 80th birthday party and fashion extravaganzas to magazine launches. Next week there's a Melbourne Cup party for 300 people, where Rolling Stone Keith Richards's daughter Alexandra will be celebrity guest DJ.
The parties, which cost organisers up to $20,000 to hire the mansion, are all part of co-owner Kerry Jones's ambition to ''open up the house'' after it sat idle for generations.
Jones and her brother Shane Moran were given the $50 million-plus home last year by their healthcare magnate parents, Doug and Greta Moran, after years of estrangement and feuding over the family fortune.
Jones said the events were to raise money for charity and said neighbours' complaints were ''churlish''.
Neighbours complain Swifts has become a fully fledged function centre, with a large kitchen installed recently, although Jones said it was merely an upgrade of the existing facilities. Woollahra Municipal Council has not received a development application for a new kitchen, but its director of planning, Allan Coker , is making a site inspection next week.
The only DA submitted by Swifts is for a fair on November 18-20 but the Darling Point Society has lodged an objection.
''We already have Lindesay House not very far away having its own antiques' fair on the same days,'' the society's president, Charlotte Feldman told PS. ''What happens at Lindesay is done in a controlled way because the council restricts what can happen there and how often it can happen. Swifts seems to have no restrictions at all.''
Jones said: ''This is a private residence. If we want to have a party here we can. The money from hiring the house covers the costs associated with putting on these events, with the balance going to charity.''
2011-10-25 17:13
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