Former ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland lists renovated Yarraville home

• Owners: Journalists Michael Rowland and Nicki Webber
• The property: An inviting, updated Edwardian
• Address: 52 O’Farrell Street, Yarraville, Victoria
• Price guide: $2.1 million-$2.3 million
• Auction: 10.30am, November 29
• Agent: Jas Stephens Real Estate, Patrick Fowler 0404 279 729

When most home owners tackle a renovation, they spend thousands of hours and sacrifice endless weekends agonising over furniture, fixtures and fittings in showrooms. 

Not journalists Michael Rowland and Nicki Webber, who completed a masterful transformation of their heritage-rich Edwardian in the inner-west Melbourne suburb of Yarraville from about 10,000 miles away.

The couple bought the property, in a plum position between the Seddon and Yarraville villages, 23 years ago and raised their two children there.

Rowland, the national affairs reporter for ABC’s 7.30 and former co-host of News Breakfast, and Webber, a journalist, editor and communications specialist, completed the all-encompassing reno in 2009, while based in Washington. The couple moved to the US in 2005 for Rowland’s role as the ABC’s North America correspondent, a few years after buying in Yarraville.

“In late 2002, Nicki and I were renting in South Yarra, which we loved,” Rowland recalls. “We had not long been married and wanted to start a family, but on two journalists’ wages we were clearly priced out of South Yarra and areas like Northcote and Thornbury, where we were looking.”

Webber had once lived in neighbouring Kingsville, and they knew the area well. The West Gate Bridge beckoned. “We decided to look west and found what turned out to be a family home of 23 years in O’Farrell Street,” Rowland says.

Skype meetings and emails kept them across the renovation, which was delivered on time and on budget under the guidance of architect Adam Woledge and builder Andrew McIntosh of Inspiration Building. “We put a lot of trust in them,” Rowland says.

“Nicky flew home and spent a frantic week with Adam choosing tiles, taps, sinks, benchtops and the like before flying back to Washington,” Rowland says. “We pretty much moved in straight away after getting back from the States in mid-2009.”

Before the update, the property had three bedrooms, one bathroom, one living room, an older kitchen, a laundry and a lean-to at the back.

The extension and rework maximised the space, creating a second-storey main bedroom (with an en suite and walk-in wardrobe), bedrooms that can be repurposed as studies, retreats or additional living rooms, and an immense ground-floor living, kitchen and dining zone, enhanced by gleaming stringybark floors.

Fireplaces, ornate fretwork, pressed-metal and rosetted ceilings and leadlight windows speak to the property’s past.

The couple had previously lived in a flat, and the Yarraville beauty’s old-world accents and generous space struck Rowland at the first inspection.

“The house had lovely period features, which were very attractive, but I then looked down the side passageway and saw an explosion of colour and greenery in the very big backyard, and I remember thinking that this is the right place,” he says.

The north-facing garden remains a cherished feature. Its size – which accommodates a deck with a retractable awning, a lush and level lawn and mature trees – is a rare attribute in the suburb. 

“The backyard is honestly one of the great things about our time there, with young kids,” Rowland says.

“It is very unusual for our area to have a big backyard. I have happy memories of the kids running out onto the great expanse of grass. Over the years, we variously had a full-size trampoline, a basketball hoop, and close to a full-size cricket pitch. Thankfully, no broken windows.

“We’ve held parties, both on the deck and spilling out onto the lawn. A young family with kids will really appreciate that aspect of the house.”

The home has hummed with the rhythm of family life. The handsome heft of the stone kitchen bench has supported all sorts of daily activities.

“The kitchen bench is the heart of the home – everyone gathers there, no matter what time of the day or night,” Rowland says. “It’s the place for a quick breakfast before work, and when we have friends over, it’s the place for drinks, snacks and conversation. We have a laptop set up on the bench for daily use.” 

However, the time has come to offer it to the next family, and the property has been listed through Patrick Fowler and Craig Stephens of Jas Stephens Real Estate.

Fowler says the scale of the floor plan, at more than 200 square metres internally, is uncommon for the suburb. As such, prospective buyers include local families who want to upsize into a substantial home that can fit a growing brood. 

“Not only are four bedrooms and two bathrooms in high demand, but there’s also a second living room, which is becoming more and more sought after, and is a key part of the criteria for the demographic of buyers in this area,” Fowler says.

“When you look at the data, over the last six months, there have been very few true family homes – which are genuine, four-bedroom, two-bathroom properties with a backyard – that have sold in this pocket of Melbourne’s inner west,” he says. “Supply has been very limited for a market where demand is consistently strong. 

“This backyard is sizable in comparison to other properties in this area – and it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

The property at 52 O’Farrell Street is scheduled to go under the hammer at 10.30am on November 29, with a price guide of $2.1 million to $2.3 million (at the time of publication).

$2,100,000 - $2,300,000

52 O'Farrell Street, Yarraville VIC 3013

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