EXCLUSIVE
Julia Gillard’s former Altona home looks surprisingly similar to the way she left it just over a year ago.
The buyers of the former prime minister’s Medford Street dwelling have turned it into a Gillard shrine, even furnishing it with replica beds and couches mimicking those belonging to Ms Gillard when she lived in the house with partner Tim Mathieson.
Chinese mortgage broker Zheng Wang and his wife, Jian Wang, bought the three-bedroom brick house at auction in December, 2013, for $921,000 – about $250,000 more than its expected sale price.
Showing Star Weekly through the house last week, their elder daughter, Stephanie, said it was the first time the family had agreed to speak to Australian media.
Ms Wang, who in 2003, at age 16, became one of the youngest-ever female International Baccalaureates, was cleared for a job with Ms Gillard’s ministerial office but gave up the chance in order to help her father in his business.
She said the family had sought information from selling agent and Ms Gillard’s long-time friend, Anna Grech, of Jas Stephens, in a bid to replace the furniture with pieces matching those owned by Ms Gillard.
“To the extent that we could, because obviously we won’t be able to find the furniture that’s exactly the same,” Ms Wang said.
In a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, a pair of brown ugg boots, once worn by Ms Gillard and given to the family, takes pride of place.
Pictures of Ms Gillard with her family members and heads of state adorn the walls. On one bedside table is a picture of Ms Gillard and her tearful father, taken when she was elected.
A copy of Ms Gillard’s book is signed, “Jian, I wish you much joy in Medford Street”.
In the entrance hall is a blown-up picture of Ms Gillard with Ms Wang’s beaming parents taken at a function in China in 2009.
What lies behind the family’s fascination?
Ms Wang said they particularly admired Ms Gillard for breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ to become the country’s first female prime minister.
She said her father wanted her mother to sign the sale contract so the property would pass “from woman to woman”.
Ms Wang hesitantly added that her family was “very fond” of the Labor Party because it was Bob Hawke who allowed Chinese students, including her father, to come to Australia after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
“He is forever indebted to them,” Ms Wang said.
“I suppose we all are because our lives would be very different now if we had to stay in China.”
She said the family was Christian but still believed in the Chinese superstition that a successful person left behind a positive vibe that is auspicious.
Ms Wang said she would be happy for the house to be placed on a heritage register and preserved for future generations.
“Essentially, we’re trying to do that in a more private way,” she said. “We are trying to conserve the house the way it is.”
