DARRYL Kerrigan would think he was dreamin’ — the humble house famous for its role as his home in The Castle has sold for a whopping $40,000.
The weatherboard was sold without its block next to Essendon Airport at 3 Dagonet St, and will be relocated more than 200km to Beechworth to form part of a new caravan park.
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The buyers — business partners George Fendyk and Geoffrey Lucas — outlasted one other bidder to claim the ultimate piece of movie memorabilia for $35,000 above seller Vicky Cosentino’s reserve price.
Ms Cosentino has owned the house for 24 years — including when the Aussie classic was filmed there. Her sister Rita burst into tears when the hammer came down.
Brad Teal selling agent Rebecca Towns had expected the house to fetch somewhere between $1000 and $10,000, but Ms Cosentino had previously told the Herald Sun she would have been happy with to accept $2000 to $3000 for it.
She plans to build two townhouses in its place, but had been reluctant to demolish the house because of its beloved status.
Mr Fendyk and Mr Lucas said they were fans of the film who’d seen in the paper that the house was for sale and drove 300km to see it for the first time today.
The pair plan to move the house to the 105ha site of the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, which they recently bought to turn into a caravan park.
They expect to open the park after Christmas, but they hope to begin the process of moving the house there within the month, which they’ve been told will cost about $70,000.
“It’ll be the managers’ office at first. We’ll also be using it as a tourist attraction,” Mr Fendyk said.
Mr Lucas added: “It’ll be a real magnet.”
The pair don’t plan to do much to the house — just expand Darryl’s famous pool room at the back to fit a “12ft table” in there.
Mr Fendyk said he’d seen the “hilarious” film countless times and was thrilled to own a piece of it.
Brad Teal auctioneer Noel Kenny was blown away by the result.
“I think Darryl Kerrigan would be proud when you think about how modest it is,” he said.
“There’s certainly a vibe here today.”
Mr Kenny said the relocation process would involve sawing the house in half, jacking it up on to a truck and manoeuvring it out of the small residential street.
The auction kicked off with a $100 bid — prompting Mr Kenny to exclaim “tell him he’s dreamin’” – before flying past the $5000 reserve to $26,000 in a matter of seconds.
The bidding continued in $1000 rises from there, before Mr Fendyk placed a knockout $40,000 bid to claim the home.