All Australian football champion Brenton Adcock is selling his beloved Adelaide Hills home, regretfully conceding that it is time to downsize.
The six-time Sturt premiership player moved to Amorilla, a magnificent 30-hectare estate at 339 Oakwood Rd, Balhannah, in the early 1970s, towards the end of a stellar 12-year football career.
A key defender, Mr Adcock played 259 games for the Double Blues, was a member of the 1966 All Australian team and was one of the first players inducted into the SA Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
He was also named in the back pocket in Sturt’s official Team of the Century.
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But farming was a long-held dream, made possible by the purchase of the then 8ha property, with a small transportable that Mr Adcock and his wife Gai later demolished in favour of a larger, custom-built home that provides stunning 360-degree views of the surrounding farmland.
“I had been working in the family real estate business (at the time of the sale),’’ Mr Adcock said.
“I was a league footballer and I was well known, which comes in very handy when it comes to selling real estate, but I had always wanted to be a farmer.
“And now I was a city slicker with 20 acres – that’s like a station property to a city slicker.’’
Over time, the couple, who raised three children in their cherished five-bedroom home, expanded their land holdings to more than 120ha, buying out local neighbours and acquiring enough land to run a successful Murray Grey cattle breeding business.
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In more recent times, they have destocked and reduced the estate to its current size, which Mr Adcock described as a “fantastic lifestyle’’ property.
“If we weren’t getting so old, there’s no way in the world we would be selling – it’s probably the reason why we’re still here at 80 odd years of age, we just love the place so much,’’ he said.
“But we’ve got to be realistic (and move to a smaller-sized property).
“I’m pretty sure whoever buys this will be rapt. You couldn’t find another property in the hills that is so beautiful and so private but so close to the town and everything else as well.’’
Mr Adcock said it’s the garden, which can be viewed from every room in the house, that he and his wife will miss most, especially the fairy wrens that visit frequently.
“My wife feeds them every morning and night,’’ he said.
“We’ve got a group that come to the front door and another group that come to the back door and they get fed as much as I do.
“We’re planting a garden at the house we’re building (and moving to) so hopefully we will get little wrens come there.’’
Amorilla is on the market through Andrew and Jake Adcock – Mr Adcock’s son and grandson – at Adcock Real Estate, with a price guide of $3.5m to $4m.