For one to fly, one needs only to take the reins.

Only 18 minutes out of Maitland and 25 minutes from Newcastle Airport, yet we’re in another world – a world of luxury. 

It’s a world where dreams are made, where you could be out riding in the 30m x 60m showjumping and dressage arena in the morning, swimming laps in the enormous pool in the afternoon, and honing your skills with a racquet on the full-sized floodlit tennis course at dusk.

Seaham Grange is not just a home. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a private luxury estate that in its relatively short 27-year history, has hosted polo events, lavish parties, bred thoroughbreds, agisted horses, and even run cattle. 

Built in 1997 as a polo property, Seaham Grange was the perfect purchase for Pam and John Farragher in 2009.

Pam has country blood running through her veins. Whilst her polo cross days are behind her (she played competitively for 8 years), and she is winding back her breeding of thoroughbreds, she is still well and truly ensconced in the equine industry that has played an integral part in her family for generations. 

Her father had carriage horses and his good friend was World Carriage Horse Champion. Pam used to ride as ‘buggy girl’, and she still has the carriage that her father had made in Hungary sitting poolside by the cabana.

Pam’s late husband, John Farragher, known by Novocastrians for their transport business, ran his Charolais and Angus cattle on the property until he died suddenly two years ago. Their son Rory has now taken over the reins of both the transport and cattle businesses.

The approach to the grand five bedroom house is along a 1km drive, with ornamental pear trees lining either side, separating the bitumen from the cattle idly grazing amongst the lush native pastures in picturesque paddocks.

Pam and John have put their own stylish stamp on this property. They painted the exterior and interior, transforming its yellow and blue ‘90s palette to a refined and elegant neutral palette and added striking light fixtures that complement the vast scale of the home. 

The home is filled with furniture the couple had collected over the years, including custom made timber furniture in the dining room with its double sided fireplace and Ralph Lauren lamps. 

They also enclosed the poolside cabana to create another huge entertaining space, and Pam used her horticultural skills that she inherited from her mother to landscape using ornamental pear trees, magnolia trees, gardenias, and roses.

“We also closed off the screened space adjacent to the kitchen with glass to create a conservatory where I spend a great deal of time with the four grandchildren.

“The polo field currently has feed growing on it, however, it is all rubble drained and can easily be restored to a polo field. We also have fourteen stables, wash bay, tack room, and 16 post-and-rail day yards with sheltered paddocks on a laneway system. All in all, there are 20 paddocks on the 81 acres,” Pam said. 

With its luxury holiday resort style features, such as the vast, vaulted ceiling entry foyer with double glass doors leading out to a tree-lined gravel walkway, this property could easily be converted into a leading player in the wedding venue market in the Hunter. 

“This has been a wonderful home but it’s time for me to move on. We’ve created so many precious memories here, including the time my brother, who is a helicopter pilot, flew my mother-in-law in for a surprise 80th on the lawns. John loved a party and this really was the perfect place for bringing people together.”

With multiple accommodation options, ranging from the five oversized bedrooms in the main dwelling, the fully self-contained poolside cabana complete with two changing rooms and a fully equipped gym, and the freestanding two-storey dwelling adjacent to the dam with fountain and waterfall, it offers many an income earning potential.

Seaham Grange is being listed for sale with Nick Clarke from Clarke & Co. Estate Agents in East Maitland. 

To view the listing on Clarke & Co and get in touch with the team, click here.

To view the listing on Real Estate, click here.