REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, January 27, 2005

PROMINENT business identity David Baird and wife Marion bought the Cronin Island house that held the record as the Gold Coast’s most expensive property for nine years and featured in the Crocodile Dundee movie.

The nine-bedroom house, which had been on the market for $13 million in 2004 before being withdrawn, was understood to have changed hands for close to $10 million.

Mr Baird would not confirm the price paid but agreed it was less than $13 million. The Bairds looked at the house at 20 Southern Cross Drive when it first came on to the market and decided it was too big.

Instead they bought a threelevel mansion at 107-109 Commodore Drive for $4.3 million – to go with the two other Paradise Waters homes they owned.

At the time Mr Baird said they had originally planned to build a new house on the Commodore Drive site., but construction costs for the project would have blown out to $6 million.

‘‘When we were looking at that sort of figure, we started thinking about this place again,’’ said Mr Baird.

He said they could not build a house of the size and the standard for the price they paid. Mr Baird, who still owns the European Wholesale and the Bentley dealership at Southport, as well as owning Look Mobile and The Jam Factory in Tasmania, said they intended to live in the house but would keep their other properties.

The couple had been living at 92 Admiralty Drive, just across the Nerang River from their new home.