Follow life’s detours

Jasmin Court is proud to be the custodian of Victorian-era Stanley Park in Fullerton Cove. Taking a quick detour on the way to the airport was all it took to change her life.

Jasmin was simply driving her father to Newcastle Airport when she showed him the beautiful 1890s building known as Stanley Park. Jasmin had friends on the same road, so she had seen the stunning Victorian-era home before.

“We were running a bit early and with plenty of time to make the flight, we took a detour down Fullerton Cove Road to show my father the building that I described as ‘just like an American plantation house’,” Jasmin said.

Her father’s response was simple: “Oh, I didn’t know that was there.” And that was the end of that. “Dad went off to do what he was doing, but some time later, I was working in Sydney, and he rang me and said, ‘Hey! Your house is for sale’.”

On a whim, they went to look at it with no real intention of purchasing it.

“I think all of Newcastle came for a look,” said Jasmin.

“It was just crawling with people when we came to inspect it.

“I had no idea that Dad actually wanted to buy it. I was living in Sydney and on holiday when his partner called me to tell me he’d been the highest bidder at the auction!”

At the time, Jasmin was working as a computer programmer and assumed that her father would move into the property. That phone call, however, was the moment she felt she saw her career change.

“Dad lives on a couple of acres. He likes space and he loves water, so I thought this would be the perfect place for him to live. But that wasn’t his plan. Rather, he suggested that we offer it as a special kind of holiday rental.

“We had a few guests, but one day I had a young woman ring me up. She said she’d love to get married at Stanley Park. So we had a wedding for 150 people. It was a beautiful day, gorgeous and sunny, and it was an outside wedding with outside catering.”

The suggestion to consider a new career for Stanley Park came from the photographer at that first wedding.

Read more about this stunning home in our Summer Edition of Hunter & Coastal Lifestyle Magazine or subscribe here.

Story and photography by Carol Duncan