Farming family make $100m on sale of Merri Park, due to development potential on Melbourne fringes
The cattle-farming family of a 'hard man' in Australia's World War II political leadership have reaped more than $100million with the sale of the huge property he bought in retirement. Cecil Looker, private secretary to WWII Prime Minister Robert Menzies and later a chief of the Melbourne and Australian Stock Exchanges, bought the 434 hectare Merri Park property at Beveridge, 35km north of Melbourne in 1966. A 'hard man with a large chip on his shoulder', Mr Looker relaxed at the property with his wife Jean from 1966, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. In 1968 he hosted Pri...