Motorcycle legend Wayne Gardner will break one of his last links to the South Coast when he auctions his multimillion-dollar property near Berry later this year.
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Yesterday the Wollongong Whiz made what could be his last visit to the family’s 60-hectare weekender before it goes to auction in October.
It is where he taught sons Remy, 14, and Luca, 11, to ride motorbikes when they were four and two.
The auction next month will scale back Gardner’s property interests in Australia and allow the family, which relocated to Spain early this year, to focus on Remy’s international riding ambitions.
‘‘Remy competed in his first year of road racing in Spain last year and nearly won the series when he came second ... I was taken aback by his fast learning curve,’’ Gardner said.
Remy now wants to have a crack at the next level to prepare for international racing, just like dad, who won a string of grand prix events around the globe and was 500cc world champion in 1987.
Gardner said yesterday that as much as he loved his hobby cattle farm at Meroo Meadow, it had become a ‘‘thorn in his side’’ in terms of maintaining it from thousands of kilometres away.
Gardner was on a whistle-stop visit on his way to a Honda celebration in Japan.
He visited the property to give the sale campaign a kick-start.
‘‘If it sells at auction then this could be my last trip here,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s unfortunate because I love the place and all the memories it has created for me and the family.’’
Gardner and his wife Toni bought the property nine years ago as a retreat from their hectic lifestyle.
‘‘I was finishing off car racing in Japan and I wanted to have a go at hobby farming.’’
Gardner said that at the time his young sons had already shown an interest in motorcycles.
‘‘We got them little quad bikes for the park [near their home in Manly] but I knew we needed more land and that’s how this farm evolved.’’
He said the property was a ‘‘very special’’ place that had given him a lot of time to reflect on his life.
‘‘The significance of riding around with my kids on my own property really put things into perspective,’’ he said.
‘‘It brought home to me the great pleasures in life my career had given me.’’
Ray White Berry agent Shane Hilaire said Gardner had made extensive improvements to the property with new dams, garage and workspace.
‘‘It’s hard to say what a property like this would fetch at auction but comparative properties in the area have gone for more than $2million,’’ he said.
The auction will be at Gabby’s Function Centre at Berry on October 17.
