Address: 4 Wentworth Avenue
Sydney, New South Wales 2000
Stellar House
The Story of Stellar House Many years ago, the late William Walkley had a dream that there
was oil in Australia and that the country could produce petroleum products. He pursued
that dream and founded AMPOL, the first Australian oil company. Sir William also dreamed
that there were diamonds in Australia, based on the theory that Australia used to be
joined to India and Africa. This meant that Western Australia would have been adjacent to
the diamond country in Africa and that the Kimberleys could therefore be a source of
diamonds. Through a mutual involvement in Soccer administration in the 1960's, Sir William
shared his vision with Alex Pongrass. It was the middle of the mining boom and together
with Albert Joris, a well known identity in the gemstone industry, they formed and floated
Stellar Mining NL with the purpose of exploring for diamonds.
Locating kimberlite pipes, indications that diamonds may be present, was not too
difficult but drilling at each location to find diamonds cost around $1 million. Stellar
diversified into sapphire mining and marketing to generate sufficient funds to continue
exploration, using Stellar House as it's headquarters. The ground floor was where the
sapphires were sorted and packaged for sale. The chances of a pipe being diamond bearing
was 1 in 100 and Stellar did not have deep enough pockets to carry our the exploration and
proving that was required to build a diamond mine. Reluctantly it relinquished it's leases
and as the mining boom came to an end, Stella Mining was sold to another mining company.
The site of the Argyle Diamond Mine is in the areas initially covered by Stellar's leases!
Stella House became a boutique hotel, now named Stellar Suites.
