Ken Goodison and wife Pauline are carving off their tennis court from their original 7.5 acre Montmorency property. Photo: Wayne Taylor When Ken Goodison first moved to Montmorency, he lived on a seven-and-a-half acre block. Now, after 38 years, he’s on a much smaller patch of land.
He’s spent the large part of his almost four decades carving slabs of his estate off and the latest offering is his tennis court.
The 76-year-old could be described as the patriarch of the area. He even hired a contractor to build two entire courts — Wooded Way and Ryrie Court — on what was originally his block.
Ken Goodison and wife Pauline bought their property in Montmorency about 38 years ago. Photo: Wayne Taylor
After the roads were built, sewers and drains were installed, and electricity and water arranged, Mr Goodison watched the houses rise around him.
Wooded Way was paved with bricks instead of bitumen, a unique method in the early ’80s which gave the court “a lot of atmosphere”, Mr Goodison said.
His 10 adult children — aged between 30 and 52 — have gradually moved out, and he now spends every weekend in Apollo Bay with his wife, Pauline.
The couple are expecting more than $690,000 for 20 Wooded Way, Montmorency. Photo: Buckingham & Company
After carving off the 654-square-metre tennis court, which had been regularly used by the neighbourhood, the couple will be left with their family home on less than one acre.
Mr Goodison said even back when he bought the property, his large estate was one-of-a-kind in the area.
“I used to keep one of the bulls on the property there,” he recalled. “One day the kids left the gate open, going up to the milk bar, and the bull followed them up the road to the milk bar.”
For the Goodisons, who previously lived in Lower Plenty, buying the huge estate in Montmorency was a move for convenience.
“My wife was running one [child] down to the station to go to school and back home, and then another one down,” he said. “Here, they can just walk around the corner to the station.”
Though Montmorency — or “Monty”, as the locals know it — is some 18 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, the suburb preserves its bush feel.
“The vegetation has been retained, which has been good,” Mr Goodison said. “It was like living in a rural atmosphere in the middle of suburbia.”
The land surveyor still remembered his children driving billy carts through the property, where they also played cricket, football and entertained friends.
Over the decades, Montmorency had become more upmarket with cafes and recognised for its proximity to schools and the train station, Mr Goodison said.
A four-bedroom house at 12 Ripper Street, Montmorency, recent sold in June for a suburb record price of $2 million, according to Domain Group data.
Buckingham & Company agent Simon McEvoy, who is guiding more than $690,000 for the tennis court, believed Montmorency was set to be the next Blackburn.
Those keen to court the unique offering and smash their way into Monty history should lob themselves to the auction on Saturday.