There’s a typical South Australian understatement about the prospects of the state’s Penola area becoming a hotbed of tourism following the streaming of the wild new TV adaptation of the classic Aussie novel My Brilliant Career on Netflix.

Both the sumptuous interiors and spectacular exteriors of the area’s Yallum Park mansion appear in the series which is drawing eyeballs and raising eyebrows around the world. And perhaps the locals who think the area needs to be more prominently identified haven’t reckoned with the global trend for ‘set-jetting’ … visiting the locations of TV shows and movies.

Just a couple of weeks ago we wrote about how the house that featured as the hospital in TV series A Country Practice still gets buses pulling up at the end of its driveway – and it stopped production more than 30 years back.

The good people of the Penola area need to get signwriters busy as they evolve their current businesses into … ummm …My Brilliant Coffee Shop, the Five Bob B&B and Sybylla’s Secret Garden?  You’re welcome.

Meanwhile as the story below reveals, the owners of Yallum Park offer guided tours once a month. I’d book now before all the Brits and Yanks roll in to escape their winter.

The Yallum Park yarn is just one of the works of non-fiction in this week’s feed from Leftfield Communications.

Free Reads

ABC Online

When Jack put his home up for sale, he didn’t think his real estate agents would be the buyers
WA authorities have warned a Perth property firm after it used a shell company to buy a home it was hired to sell.

Owners of 19th-century Yallum Park mansion featured in Netflix series hope for Penola boost
Interest in the 19th-century Yallum Park homestead near Penola has risen since its use in Netflix’s My Brilliant Career adaptation, though some locals doubt the tourism benefit without more promotion linking the series to the region.

Domain

She built her home for $4300 in 1956. At 102, she’s finally moving on
Elaine Keesing built her only home in 1956 for about $4300, gathering the family around its wood-fired oven.

How this Aussie couple purchased their dream home through a letterbox drop
Tasmanian renovation professionals Jesse and Katrina secured their dream home south of Hobart through a letterbox drop after four years of searching in a volatile market.

Final Sydney home of fashion icon Maggie Tabberer fetches over $4m
The final home of Australia’s first supermodel, Maggie Tabberer, a three-bedroom Bellevue Hill apartment, has sold for $4.175 million, with the price confirmed after a February settlement.

Petrie Terrace driveway sells for $895,000 in frenzied bidding war
A 185sq m concrete driveway at 38 Regent Street, Petrie Terrace, believed to be Brisbane’s smallest block, has sold at a contested auction for a record $895,000 to a buyer who plans to build a home on it.

Husband sees $1.9 million Moonee Ponds house for the first time after his wife bought it
A husband saw the $1.9 million Moonee Ponds house his wife bought for the first time as agents applied the sold sticker.

Elizabeth Taylor’s famous home saved from the wrecking ball
Elizabeth Taylor’s longtime Bel Air estate has been saved from demolition, ending years of uncertainty after luxury developer Ardie Tavangarian bought it in 2021.

Love Island’s infamous Casa Amor villa hits the market
The Hawaii estate that featured as Love Island’s Casa Amor villa has been listed for US$3.25 million ($4.55 million), the New York Post reports.

Iconic Hydro Majestic Hotel is searching for a new owner
The heritage-listed Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Blue Mountains is for sale after more than 120 years overlooking the Megalong Valley.

Second elite Sydney school in bid to buy public street
Shore School in North Sydney is seeking to buy part of Edward Street, the second bid by an elite Sydney school to purchase a public street in weeks, after a similar SCEGGS Redlands proposal.

Century-old villa listed at massive discount – with a huge catch
A century-old three-bedroom home on Epsom Street, Auckland, is listed for $NZ320,000 (about $270,000), far below its previous multimillion-dollar tag, with a catch attached, Stuff reports.

Realestate.com.au

NRL Roosters player Hugo Savala’s huge $3.6m play
Roosters player Hugo Savala has bought his first property, a Pagewood investment, in a three-way partnership with his rugby-playing brother Charlie and bookmaker father Scott, each holding a third.

Wellness couple’s Bellevue Hill sanctuary has $37m hopes
80 Beresford Road, Bellevue Hill, a trophy home and wellness retreat owned by entrepreneur Garrett Jandegian and his wife Stephanie, has been listed with $37 million hopes.

Woman loses house claim after judge finds case undermined by ‘hallucinated’ AI research
A Queensland judge has ordered a Gladstone woman out of a house she claimed was promised to her, finding her 15-year stay was a tenancy, not a path to ownership, in a case the judge found was undermined by “hallucinated” AI research.

Celebrity chef Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home under offer
Celebrity chef Laura Sharrad and her husband Max have sold their Henley Beach home, now under offer days after its auction was called off hours before it was due, for an undisclosed price.

AI-powered property scams target Australian homebuyers nationwide
New PEXA research finds 42 per cent of Australians miss property-scam warning signs as AI-enhanced fraud targets homebuyers, with confidence in spotting fraud down from 51 to 41 per cent in a year.

Billy Slater’s wild new life after footy as pet deer Cheryl takes over home
Former Maroons coach Billy Slater’s pet deer Cheryl has become a viral hit, with videos from the family’s 20-acre Mornington Peninsula farm drawing more than 3 million views.

Tradie cracks property market with $3k side hustle
Sydney tradie Ronan Galab, 26, funded his first investment property with a weekend side hustle welding gold and silver bracelets, working the family construction business by day.

One of last Inner West Sydney ‘witches houses’ sold for $8m
Highroyd, one of the last “witches houses” in Annandale, has sold. The late-Victorian Gothic home was listed with a $7.95 million guide, down from $9.75 million hopes last spring, by the founders of skincare brand Ultraceuticals.

‘Typically stylish’: Home of late fashion icon Maggie Tabberer sold for $4.175m
Maggie Tabberer’s Bellevue Hill apartment has settled at $4.175 million, bought by the Mitchell family of Yarraman Park Stud at Scone.

Point Piper mansion next to Malcolm Turnbull with up to $90m price tag
Deauville, a French Riviera-inspired Point Piper mansion next to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, has been listed at $85 million to $90 million, more than double the $39 million car importer Neville Crichton paid in 2017.

Great Boomer Downsize set to trigger huge generational handover of family homes
Almost two million Australian households plan to downsize within five years, Place Advisory analysis shows, up 14 per cent from 2021, pointing to one of the largest generational handovers of family homes as the oldest Boomers turn 80.

Entire Aus island for sale for less than Sydney home
Little Dog Island off Tasmania has been listed for $520,000, less than a cheap Sydney home, with two beaches, two huts and a composting toilet.

First-home buyer reveals Reddit hack that saved him from $30,000 mistake
A Brisbane first-home buyer, Alex Raven, says an online research hack helped him and his partner buy 12 months ago and avoid a $30,000 mistake.

From Steph and Gian to Gav and Waz: Inside The Block’s biggest property flips
Block alumni have been behind more than $35.7 million in off-screen property sales, buying 10 standout homes for a combined $15.4 million before reselling them for more than $35.7 million.

D’Leanne Lewis’s family home in Blacktown up for auction
The Blacktown home where agent D’Leanne Lewis grew up is for auction.

Selby home goes to auction with a disclosed reserve and a pet sheep
A Dandenong Ranges home at 16 Currajong Avenue, Selby, goes to auction today with its reserve disclosed and an unusual inclusion, Smudgie the sheep, on the 4000sq m block.

The Block 2026: Mt Eliza auction reserves face public reveal under Victorian reforms
The Block’s secret auction reserves could be made public a week before the 2026 Mt Eliza finale under proposed Victorian reforms requiring each reserve to be advertised as a single figure for seven days.

Oscar Piastri’s mother pulls F1 star’s childhood home off market
Nicole Piastri, mother of F1 driver Oscar Piastri, has taken the family’s Bayside home off the market, having listed it in April for $6.5 million.

Wild Beverly Hillbillies-style promo for regional Victorian home
A regional Victorian farmhouse at Wareek, near Maryborough, is being marketed with a comic Beverly Hillbillies-style promo, listed at $500,000 to $550,000.

Island yurt for sale in one of Brisbane’s cheapest suburbs
A recently built, travel-inspired yurt-style home at 24 Orion Street, Macleay Island, is for sale on one of Brisbane’s most affordable islands.

Real Commercial

How RSLs are reinventing themselves with no pokies, alcohol-lite Gen Z
Melbourne’s oldest continually operating RSL, Coburg, has reinvented itself as a volunteer-run, pokie-free community hub built on live music, events and craft beer, approaching its 108th year after nearly folding 16 years ago.

Urban Developer

Two-Bedroom Home Every Two Hours: Modscape Goes Next Level
Modscape will open a 50,000sq m robotic modular factory at Yatala on the northern Gold Coast by the end of 2027, forecast to deliver 2000 modules a year and employ about 300, as it expands across Queensland and northern NSW.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Manor in Batman movie could be seized … because of bats
The owner of Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, used as Wayne Manor in Batman Begins, could lose the Grade I heritage-listed home unless bat surveys are done, after a repairs notice over the building’s deterioration.

Stop panicking about data centres. Golf courses use four times the water
An opinion piece urges against panic over data centres, arguing fear is overwhelming the facts on an opportunity Australia cannot miss, and noting golf courses use about four times the water often cited as a concern for data centres.

Long-distance NIMBYs scrubbed from NSW planning rules
New NSW laws will make it harder to delay data centre and renewable projects through the planning system, targeting frivolous objections lodged from far away.

Vast Northern Territory cattle station on sale as the Top End fires up
Brisbane-based asset manager AAM has launched a sale or capital-raising for a 178,870-hectare Northern Territory cattle station near the Western Australian border, the latest in a run of Top End deals. Industry sources suggest the property alone could fetch $100 million or more.

Ray White recruits star rival in midst of property downturn
Ray White has recruited leading eastern suburbs agent Alex Phillips during the downturn.

Mark Zuckerberg buys 200-year-old castle for Ireland visits
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have bought Strancally Castle and its 178-hectare estate in County Waterford, Ireland, in an off-market deal completed weeks ago, adding to the Facebook co-founder’s property portfolio.

The Australian

Moore Park golf course becomes key NSW election battleground
Moore Park Golf Course has become a NSW election flashpoint, with the Opposition vowing to reverse the Minns government’s decision to carve up the public course.

Housing industry warns data centre boom is creating a ‘bidding war’ for electricians
A shortage of electricians and specialist tradies drawn to lucrative data centre work could worsen the housing crisis, the Housing Industry Association warns.

Tech giants squeeze data centre operators in race for Australian AI dominance
Hyperscalers including Meta, Anthropic, Amazon and Google are hardening contract terms with Australian data centre operators, adding penalties for construction delays and performance breaches as they compete for capacity.

The Sydney Morning Herald

This Sydney wedding venue wanted the pontoon. The locals weren’t having it
Canada Bay Council has rejected Drummoyne venue Aqua Luna’s plan to host weddings and events on a 15-metre pontoon along the Iron Cove Bay Run, after months of community opposition over commercial use of public space.

What downturn? Two Rich Listers offer Point Piper homes for about $90m each
While the rest of Sydney softens, Point Piper is running its own race, with two vendors this week seeking as much as $90 million.

The Age

‘The most inexpensive little castle’ in South Yarra sells for $1,785,000
A three-bedroom semi at 17 Coolullah Avenue, South Yarra, described by its agent as the most inexpensive little castle in the suburb, sold for $1,785,000 in post-auction negotiations.

The Brisbane Times

Root of the dispute: How a years-long Brisbane tree fight ended up in tribunal
A years-long Brisbane dispute over trees blocking river and skyline views has ended up in a tribunal, as spring growth again raises tensions over prized outlooks.

Never mind the shagpile and lino: Auchenflower house sells for millions
A century-old, never-sold Auchenflower house with shagpile carpet and mustard lino has sold for a reserve-smashing $3.225 million.

The Daily Telegraph

Wollondilly Shire Council to vote on $15m park upgrade despite $14m funding shortfall
Wollondilly councillors will vote on a $15 million park upgrade in south-west Sydney, including a playing field, amenities and playground, despite only a small share of the funding secured against a $14 million shortfall.

Businesses and councils clash over ‘missing link’ Oxford Street cycle path
Business owners in Sydney’s inner east fear a proposed Oxford Street cycle path will hurt trade, while neighbouring councils push to complete the missing link between major town centres.

Who owns Australia 2026: Full list of 1500-plus farms, owners
The Weekly Times has published its 2026 breakdown of more than 1500 Australian farms and their owners, mapping landholdings and where the money comes from.

Lord Mayor faces backlash as Town Hall Square debate reignites
A Daily Telegraph piece on backlash to Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s push to demolish two near-century-old CBD landmarks for a Town Hall Square, a decade after she fought to save a Glebe building.

The Courier Mail

Neighbour ordered to lop trees blocking million-dollar Brisbane river view
A long-running neighbour dispute over trees blocking million-dollar Brisbane river views has ended with an order to lop the trees and cap their height.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Griffith University opens new student tower with resort-style pool and cinema
Griffith University has opened a new Gold Coast student accommodation tower featuring a resort-style pool, yoga studio and cinema room.