- An unusual South Island estate, Campbell Park, sold by liquidators for $3.2m.
- The 79-hectare property features a Gothic-style castle, 35 homes and a gymnasium.
- The estate, linked to abuse allegations, was previously owned by a company tied to Richard Yan.
An unusual but crumbling South Island estate the size of a small town has been sold by liquidators for $3.2 million.
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OneRoof has reached out to the agent for comment but can report the sale price was over the $2.9m CV – $2.27m of which was improvements and $630,000 land value.
Campbell Park Estate, in Duntroon, slightly inland between Oamaru and Timaru, featured in the Hollywood blockbuster The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but had also been in the headlines over allegations of abuse at a school run on the estate.
The Otago property was sold by the liquidators of a company linked to one of the directors of the failed Mainzeal company.
The 79ha estate is the size of a small town and comes with multiple properties. Photo / Supplied
Inside the Gothic castle, which was built by the family whose name the estate bears. Photo / Supplied
At 79ha, the property had a Gothic-style castle, 35 homes, stables, an old jailhouse, a gymnasium and an underground cave.
The school at the centre of the abuse allegations was opened in 1908 and closed in 1987.
A OneRoof article published at the end of last year told how in 2016 the property was bought by an Auckland company, Richina Ltd, for a reported $4m, and there were hopes at the time the new owners would bring it back to life.
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The company’s main shareholders are Tina Wang and her husband Richard Yan, who was a director of troubled property and construction firm Mainzeal.
Yan and his fellow Mainzeal directors, including former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, were recently ordered to pay more than $60m for breaching their director duties following Mainzeal’s collapse in 2013.
The OneRoof story said Richina Ltd was tipped into liquidation in August by Insolvency New Zealand, according to reporting by Business Desk. The heritage-listed estate is one of three parcels of land owned by the company.
According to historical accounts, the property was first owned by pastoralist William Dansey, whose original hut still survives to this day.
The property was subsequently sold to Robert Campbell, who commissioned prominent Dunedin architects Mason and Wales to design a grand home on the estate. Campbell was said to have brought craftsmen and materials from Scotland and Italy for the job.
Pioneer William Dansey's original rustic hut is included in the sale. Photo / Supplied
According to an entry in Wikipedia, Campbell named the town of Duntroon.
In his listing on OneRoof, Bayleys agent Graham Fielding, who was selling the estate on behalf of INZ, advised that 24 hours security, seven days a week had been placed on the property and trespass notices had been issued to individuals. He asked people to respect the property’s boundaries.
The estate was a “historic masterpiece” in need of restoration, he wrote.
“This impressive building was once the heart of the vast Otekaieke Station, but now awaits a new owner with a vision to restore it to its former glory.”
Fielding, who grew up on a neighbouring farm, told OneRoof last year he remembered sitting under huge trees at the estate eating his mashed egg sandwiches and jelly, waiting to take part in athletic events held there.
He said one of the mysteries of the property was the subterranean cave. It was blocked off when he was a child but rumour had it that it was an escape route for the Campbell family.
“It’s very mysterious. Legend has it that it was connected to the house. It was a worst-case scenario for the Campbell family back in the early days. If they were ambushed in the 1800s or early 1900s, they could make a retreat through the cave system.”
Fielding remembered every building on the site from childhood. “The stables are sensational. [The building] needs re-roofing, but I see it as being a drawcard for many that might want to use the park going forward as a conference or event centre.”
Although the liquidator has had a registered valuation prepared, it was anyone’s guess how much the property will sell for, according to the OneRoof story.
However, the buyer would need deep pockets to restore the property to its former glory, Fielding said. “So essentially it’s going to be millions to get yourself in the gate, and then it’s going to be millions to put it back together.”
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