Gary Buckenara: Hawthorn great lists Rosebud home
Hawthorn great Gary Buckenara is selling 38 Rosebud Ave, Rosebud.
Four-time Hawthorn premiership player Gary Buckenara is kicking on from his Rosebud home of nearly nine years.
The Hawks Team of the Century member – who was also a three-time All-Australian in the ’80s and Sydney’s senior coach in the early ’90s – and wife Annette have $1.25m-$1.35m price hopes for the four-bedroom house.
Well ahead of the Covid-driven trend that has made the Mornington Peninsula one of the nation’s hottest housing markets, the Buckenaras first moved to the region while the former footballer was working at Hawthorn’s Waverley Park head office.
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Gary Buckenara, pictured with Robert DiPierdomenico and John Kennedy, is a four-time Hawthorn premiership player.
The Buckenaras have called the property home for nine years.
The 63-year-old returned to the Hawks in 2000, becoming head of recruiting in 2004 and playing a “leading role in assembling the line-up” that won flags in 2008 and 2013-15, the club’s website states.
“We rented a place, just to see what it would be like,” Buckenara recalled. “I did a bit of commuting and with the freeway system, it wasn’t too bad.
“We then decided this is where we’d like to spend probably the rest of our lives.”
In 2013, the Buckenaras bought 38 Rosebud Ave and then “put a lot of work into it and spent a bit of money to make the house more comfortable”.
The couple installed a new kitchen …
… and created a lush garden.
This included installing a new kitchen, flooring, and ensuite to the main bedroom, replacing “mission-brown slats around the pool” with paving, and adding airconditioning and heating throughout the house.
“The gardens were also basically non existent, but we’ve got them looking beautiful,” Buckenara said.
The now-Herald Sun footy columnist said he had loved having multiple living areas in the single-level home – one where a “big TV is set up to watch all the sport”.
The poolside alfresco area, with another TV and a barbecue, had been ideal for hosting guests.
Buckenara had enjoyed living in a “quiet little neighbourhood” far enough from the front beach to be protected from the summer rush, but close to cafes, the Waterfall Gully shops, a reserve, the Bay Views Golf Course and the Rosebud Country Club.
The house has a $1.25m-$1.35m price.
The Buckenaras at the house. Picture: Alex Coppel
Belle Property Rosebud-Dromana director Grant McConnell said while the “beautiful family home” was tucked away on a street you would “only go down if you lived there”, you could “drive to the beach in less than five minutes”.
The Buckenaras plan to downsize on the Peninsula, with their 872sq m property set for auction on March 5.
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