Hi, it’s Adrian Bo here and today I’m in the beautiful Centennial Parklands to talk about a few recent notable happenings in our local community, as well as featuring some local legends. Firstly, great news that the Godfather of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, George Piggins, has returned to his South Coogee home after being in hospital for 6 weeks with a quite serious infection. The 75 year old is now rehabbing at home with his wife, Noelene, though he’s already been sighted at his favourite breakfast cafe, Alexandria. Apparently, he’s looking forward to attending a lunch in a few weeks to celebrate the 20th anniversary since the mighty Rabbitohs were re-admitted into the NRL.

Surely George will be a regular at the new HQ for the Rabbitohs, the Heffron Centre, which I featured last week on my community video, like I am doing today. That will be a fantastic project when it’s completed. Now, a few days ago, there was a ceremony held here, at Centennial Parklands which involved the planting of a Moreton Bay Fig tree in memory of another local legend, Jack Mundey, who passed away last year at the age of 90. Jack played for the Parramatta Eels in the 1950s whilst working in construction, a career then followed in the Trade Unions where he was a big advocate for safety reforms on building sites. A stint in politics included being elected to the City of Sydney Council.

In 1965, he led one of Australia’s first sit-ins against Vietnam War Conscription and in 1981, he was part of a group of people who fought to save the landing site of the First Fleet at Circular Quay, known as “the Gateway Site”. He was also involved in a fight to limit development around the Sydney Opera House in 1994, and developed a reputation as one of Australia’s toughest Conservationists. In fact I’m sure Jack would have been very pleased regarding last week’s rejection of Meriton’s proposed development at Little Bay Cove by the Sydney Eastern Planning Panel, backing up Randwick Council’s rejection of the proposal late last year. Meriton’s proposal for the site included over 1900 dwellings up to 17 storeys as well as a hotel with 6000 square metres of retail, medical and childcare centres. Another tough character is a local legend by the name of Josh Reading. Josh was recently given a Bravery Award by the Lifeguard Association for saving local surfer Will McCormack in 2019.

That day, Will and his mates were surfing a break off Wedding Cake Island, when a storm brewed, creating a large southerly swell and very strong winds. Some of the group managed to scramble to safety on the rocks at Gordon’s Bay but Will drifted further out to sea. The weather was too severe for the rescue helicopter to launch, so Josh on his jet ski was Will’s only chance of survival. After picking Will up 100 metres from the Clovelly carpark rockface, he got them both back safely onto Coogee Beach. Another reminder of how lucky we are in the Eastern Suburbs to have incredible lifesavers when we most need them. Now, my unique real estate marketing system proved itself in spades yet again last week. I concluded the sale of 2 at 47 Coogee Bay Road in Randwick for over 1.5 Million dollars which was more than $200,000 above the price guide, a great result for the vendor who I sold it to 7 years ago who achieved 70% growth within this period and also a wonderful home for the lovely young family from Queens Park who ended up being the eventual buyers. The strength of interest generated from my digital and social media marketing system was a great success by targeting and re-targeting both local and passive buyers from the area and other precincts as well. Then, last weekend, I took 10 at 74 Bream Street, Coogee to auction.

Having run the Open Homes leading up to Auction day of this art deco 1.5 bedroom, 76 square metre unit, I could see that my digital and social media marketing system was generating a lot of interest considering there was no car park attached to the property, but it was a beautiful boutique Art Deco building. The auction was a lively affair with six registered bidders and my hammer coming down at $1.1 million, which was $225,000 above the actual price guide. Another fantastic result for the vendors and a great location being only 200 metres from Coogee Beach, for the buyers. Also being another young family. Young families seem to be a growing demographic for Coogee and Randwick apartments. Mainly due to the lifestyle and convenience of not moving further south or further west where they may be able to secure a small duplex or semi, for the same price.

That’s on the back of a huge month of May where I sold nine properties all for record prices amounting to over $17 million in sales. So let’s hope George Piggins continues to mend I’m sure that the 46-0 schlacking of the Broncos by my mighty Rabbitohs and by George Piggins’ mighty Rabbitohs on Thursday night will have warmed his heart like it did mine. I hope you’ve enjoyed these community stories I’m so passionate about celebrating the legends we have amongst us, in our local communities and precincts. As well as retaining local important history anecdotes. I’m so happy that my unique digital and social media strategies are being recognised by local buyers and sellers as the new and easy way of buying and selling real estate is finally here due to my direct algorithm approach being proprietary to myself after spending years of study and thousands of dollars to benefit my local community and all the stake holders involved with the property transaction. Enjoy the Eastern Suburbs winter, and always remember your home is worth more with Adrian Bo