Former champion jockey Cheryl Neal has put her 810sq m block up for auction at 1pm on Saturday February 11 at 10 Osullivan Street, Hendra.
Qld jockey Cheryl Neal is auctioning off her home, with the double block sale in blue chip Hendra set to fund her continued care after a career-ending fall saw her become a paraplegic.
Her daughter Sharon Neal-Bullen said she and her children AFL player Alex Neal-Bullen and disability carer Patrick Neal-Bullen had fond memories in the Hendra home, a stone’s throw from the heart of the racing scene in Brisbane.
Ms Neal, who was the second woman ever in Australia to get permission to race against men, suffered a fall from a horse and was in a coma for eight months in her early 30s and has been wheelchair-bound since.
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Female jockeys preparing to ride in the inaugural 1974 Lipstick Lightning at Charleville (left to right) Judy Curran, Glenda Freeman, Cheryl Neal, Joanna Nevell, Pauline Reardon, Arlene Davis, Pam O’Neill and Lyn Baskett.
Alex Neal-Bullen, his mum Sharon Neal-Bullen, brother Patrick Neal-Bullen and grandmother champion jockey Cheryl Neal. Picture: Supplied/Sharon Neal-Bullen.
Article in the Canberra Times in 1980 about jockey Cheryl Neal.
“I moved there when I was 9, I’m 53 now,” Mrs Neal-Bullen said of the Hendra home at 10 Osullivan Street. “When we moved there, she was a fully fledged jockey, initially riding against the women at that time. She worked incredibly hard, especially trackwork. She was probably one of the most hardest working women. She also rode the races on weekends and travelled interstate to do the ladies races.”
She said the Hendra home held lots of memories for them all.
“Mum had quite a long garden bed out the backyard and this one time it was absolutely overgrown with weeds and tomato plants. She said the two boys Elvis – that was Alex’s nickname from Mum and Robin (Patrick) – which is from Batman could dig the garden up. She was sitting there in her wheelchair, directing them what to do. My oldest boy said it was a nightmare, his words, but he stuck it out and completed the whole weeding.”
Sharon Neal-Bullen with her mum champion jockey Cheryl Neal. Picture: Supplied/Sharon Neal-Bullen.
Alex Neal-Bullen during the Melbourne Demons 2021 Official Team Photo Day at Casey Fields in February 2021. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos.
“The boys had quite a bit to do with Mum, it was great because they got to learn and experience what it was like having a loved one with a disability. I am really proud of the way they are. My younger one works with a boy (with a disability) who wants to play for Australia. Definitely his choice of career came from his experience with his grandmother, he did a physio degree, he’s the brainy one in the family.”
Agent Andrea Brown of Ray White Wilston has the 810sq m block going to auction at 1pm on Saturday February 11 at 10 Osullivan Street, Hendra.
It is the first time the property has been on the market in 40 years, she said, and it has the “position and potential to renovate or subdivide into two 405sq m lots”.
10 Osullivan Street, Hendra, is located one street away from the racecourse in Brisbane.
The double block is expected to attract strong interest from builders and investors looking for a new project in the blue chip area.
Ms Neal-Bullen said being an only child, most of her childhood at the Hendra home was spent playing with other kids on the street, hanging out at each other’s houses.
She said the hope was that the property sale would bring in enough to help keep her mother in comfortable retirement living conditions.
“Her story is a seriously amazing story of resilience. She had her accident at the peak of her career. She’d won this international ladies race which was the first in history for Australian horse racing and that was in Melbourne. She rode an amazing skilled ride. Mum is the most coolest and composed person under pressure. She’s like my son Alex who plays AFL in a pressure cooker environment. Mum was on a 600kg animal trying to win races, she was good under pressure.”
The home is in original condition.
The home was made wheelchair friendly after a friend Tracy Pelling approached the Qld Jockey Trust for assistance for Cheryl Neal.
“She was in a coma for six months, came home after two years and her life physically was forever changed, She was an elite athlete. She never asked for any help.”
Ms Neal-Bullen said the family was forever grateful to Tracy Pelling, a really good friend of their real estate agent Andrea, who had earlier helped Ms Neal get assistance.
“She said Sharon I could ring the Queensland Jockey Trust and see if they will help your mum. They bought mum a brand-new car, they did home renovations especially her bathroom to make it safe, they outlaid quite a bit of financial assistance to make mum’s life more comfortable. Tracy Pelling an absolutely ripper person, I’m really forever grateful.”
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