Shari-Lea Hitchcock buys in Vaucluse

Shari-Lea Hitchcock, the long-time mistress of late billionaire Richard Pratt, is moving out of her daughter’s waterfront home in Watsons Bay, having bought her own $5,055,000 home in the next suburb.

It’s a turnaround on the usual course of events in which the child moves out of the family home but then few 18-year-olds are as wealthy as Paula Pratt.

Six months ago settlement of Richard Pratt’s will left his daughter with the bulk of some $100 million, including cash, shares, the Watsons Bay waterfront home she has long shared with her mother and a farm in Cambewarra, near Nowra on the South Coast.

When Pratt died in 2009, aged 74, he was worth an estimated $5.48 billion, according to the BRW Rich List, making him Australia’s then fourth-richest person.

Hitchcock’s new digs in Vaucluse don’t claim a waterfront position like her daughter’s home, but there are still plenty of high-end luxury finishes for Hitchcock and her boyfriend, Dallen Alexander. Designed by architect Mathew Stubbs, of Stubbs Design Tribe, the six-bedroom, four-bathroom home comes with a home cinema, swimming pool and harbour views.

Hitchcock settled in the Fitzwilliam Road property this week, having bought it late last year under the hammer through Sotheby’s International’s Michael Pallier.