The Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar has lodged plans to preserve his almost 7000-square-meter historic Sydney estate as one lot with a single-family home.

The 40-year-old Farquhar bought the waterfront estate in Point Piper for $71 million in 2017 from the vendor, John Brehmer Fairfax, to protect the beautiful piece of Australian history from being turned into a development site.

Three years later, the billionaire plans to do away with DA approval from Woollahra Council to subdivide the sprawling harbourside estate into four separate homes. Instead, he wants to re-amalgamate the Elaine estate as one lot with a single-family home while protecting the century-old trees, gardens, and stables in the process.

Farquhar’s Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes owns the next-door 1.12-hectare property, named Fairwater, which he snapped in 2018 for $100 million also from the Fairfax family.

Heritage architect Howard Tanner put forth the historical importance of Farquhar’s Elaine estate, saying:

‘The most important thing for heritage in this part of Woollahra is the continuum of open space with runs from the council chambers, through the foreshore gardens of this property and to Fairwater next door.’

He added:

‘It is the site and the gardens where the real heritage value lies and if there’s one thing that the council should be urgently assisting with, it is keeping this open space.’

In September 2013, Mr. Fairfax announced his decision to sell the waterfront estate, which had been in the family since Geoffrey Evan Fairfax bought the property in 1891 for £2100.

The Woollahra Council approved plans of subdividing Elaine into four new mansions in 2015 as the harbourside estate had been denied state heritage listing.

Farquhar plans to retain key elements of the existing mansion, which was built in 1863 and underwent alterations in the 1950s and 1970s.

The self-made billionaire has an estimated personal wealth of AUD 16 billion. However, his childhood wasn’t as luxurious as it is now. He was born into a working-class family. And, he used to sleep after crying for hours because his parents couldn’t afford to buy him a computer.

Farquhar is married to his wife, Kim Jackson, whom he met through mutual friends. His wife Kim is a founder of an investment company ‘Skip Capital.’ The couple is doting parents to their three sons.

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