See inside Taj Burrow’s multi-million dollar Nautilus House, temporary home to Nicolas Cage!

“The master bathtub was positioned to have a commanding view of the client's favourite surf break."

The Western Australian surf great Taj Burrow is one of the few high-profile shredders from the nineties who didn’t invest his formidable bankroll, at least entirely, in hookers, Balinese bars and coke. 

Instead, Burrow, who is forty-five, has built a fine property portfolio, which includes an acreage out the back of Yallingup, Western Australia, where he grew up, and at one time a Tuscan-inspired villa overlooking Sydney’s most fickle left barrel. 

But nothing comes close to Burrow’s principal residence, The Nautilus House, in Wardanup Crescent, Yalls, aka “millionaire’s row”.

It was designed by architect Dane Richardson and is currently the temporary digs of Hollywood superstar Nicolas Cage, in the south-west to shoot a movie called The Surfer, and which we referenced earlier today. 

The property was bought for two-milll in 2004 and the new place was built in 2011, winning the overall Design Excellence Award at the 2012 Building Designers Australia WA.

“I pushed through with many questions but the owner travels most of the year and was young without family so it was hard to pin down exactly what was required. The brief then developed to include a small pool, a lot of storage space, small home office, games room large enough for pool table and a large open fire place for ambiance,” Richardson told Architect and Design.  

“The master bathtub was positioned to have a commanding view of the clients favourite surf break. This was managed by loading our 3D model into Google Earth and tweaking the alignment of this particular window to the surf break. Another nice touch was to include a roof top deck; this is a small space sitting high on the concrete roof deck, fully exposed but an incredibly dramatic space for the old glass of wine.”

It ain’t hard to see why Cage was attracted to the joint.

Neighbours still recall, fondly, the demolition of the old place.

“He had a pretty nice place before, but he knocked that one down. He had a demolition party and everyone came around with sledgehammers and knocked the walls down,” neighbour Candice McKiernan said.

Nicolas Cage, meanwhile, has been thrilling locals, hither and yon.

Food of Asia owner Annie Liban said Cage was shopping in her store when he attempted to buy oranges.

Perth Now reports,

“I said to him, ‘I’m so sorry, we only accept cash (for those)’,” Liban said, to which the actor replied, “I’m so sorry, I only have US dollars with me”.

“I thought, ‘That’s him, that’s him’,” an excited Ms Liban said before reassuring him: “It’s OK, it’s OK — you don’t have to pay.”

Heady days!