Moreton Bay castle has French connection
News Corp Australia Network
This property at 200 Ocean View Rd, Ocean View will go to auction on Friday, February 4.
A ‘ten pound Pom’, who used to live on an island closer to France than Moreton Island is to the mainland, built a castle in the Moreton Bay region so she could feel at home on the other side of the world.
Diana Norman was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands, where the British Empire’s defence of its territory against the French is still evident in the fort-like Martello towers built along the coastline.
The view over the Glass House Mountains.
But Ms Norman grew up loving France and would spend summer holidays exploring the cobblestone streets, medieval half-timbered houses, and gothic churches of Brittany.
The Australian home she and her husband Tim Mills built in 2009 at 200 Ocean View Rd, Ocean View pays homage to that French medieval style. And while the four hectare property has some of the most iconic views of Queensland, from the Glass House Mountains to Moreton Island, it has been a little piece of France while Australia remained cut off from the world.
There’s a lot of old world charm in this chateau garden.
“We found two blocks at Ocean View but the best view was in the middle of them, so we amalgamated them and went to see a draughtsman who drew up plans for this beautiful house that was all glass, it was amazing,” Ms Norman said. “But then, being from Jersey, I decided to go home and visit relatives in Brittany and Normandy. They are my favourite places with these beautiful old buildings and little towers, and I’ve always wanted to live in a castle, so we came back and said to the draughtsman that we wanted a three-storey stone tower please. He was very good about it but I think he was surprised.”
Diana Norman with her Griffon Bruxellois, Knitting Nancy. She breeds and shows dogs and is an international all breeds dog judge.
The La Tour Tzani would take almost two years to complete, its unfamiliar style giving local builders a unique set of challenges. The property comprises a main residence with a three-storey stone tower, and two separate one-bedroom period barns or gites which are used as guest accommodation.
The entrance to the stone tower.
The tower’s lower level has a drawing room some seven metres in diameter, with a slate floor and fireplace.
The slate floors and stone walls of 200 Ocean View Rd, Ocean View
A spiral staircase leads to two main bedrooms, one with a private deck and the other a Juliet balcony. And the top floor has a sitting room that could be converted into an additional bedroom as required.
The main living area is beside the tower with six-metre high ceilings, stained-glass oeil-de-boeuf windows, slate floors and French tapestries.
Tapestries are fit for purpose in this home.
The continental theme continues outside with a chateau garden complete with a waterfall, wood-fired pizza oven, and five ponds. While a resort-style pool and deck have valley and coastal views.
A wood-fired pizza oven is one of many garden features.
“Happiness for me is having all these things around me, and my husband,” Ms Norman said. Ms Norman lived in Sydney before moving to Queensland, eventually buying 85 acres at Ocean View where she bred llamas and had a restaurant.
“Everything was great and I loved it but then I got breast cancer and I just couldn’t do it on my own any more, so I sold up and moved to Twin Waters and that’s where I met my husband Tim.”
Even the swimming pool has coastal views.
Tim Mills is a navy man who grew up in Hervey Bay and Maryborough.
The couple fell in love and had a traditional Baha’i wedding at Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast in 2006.
“We’re not religious but that was the only celebrant we could get so we became Baha’i for the day,” Ms Norman said.
Three years later, they were building their French castle in the mountains.
“It is going to be emotional to leave this place but it is time to move on. Who knows, we might build another, something smaller further north.”
Tim Mills and Diana Norman are selling their French-inspired castle at 200 Ocean View Rd, Ocean View.
Vicki Pain of Ray White Dayboro will take 200 Ocean View Rd, Ocean View to auction on February 4 at 10.30am.