Sydney’s elite gather at Le Manoir for News Corp’s summer party

In the first week of December, all eyes are on Sydney’s harbourside mansion country.

For the creatures of various political, business, media, cultural and sporting tribes, there is no greater thrill than receiving an invitation to the signature power party of the summer.

Every year, the News Corp royal family’s Son King Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah open the doors of their Bellevue Hill trophy mansion Le Manoir to the nation’s in crowd.

Alas, your columnists’ invitations were lost in cyberspace (or possibly blocked by our email servers) leaving us to file this dispatch from the Bellevue Hill gutter on Thursday evening as the glitterati greedily trickle in.

Last year a nonagenarian newlywed Rupert Murdoch made an appearance; this year we had to satisfy ourselves with the rumour News Corp global boss Robert Thomson (a former journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, no less), who shares a birthday with the big man, was Down Under.

One of Lachlan’s closest confidant’s Siobhan McKenna departed his orbit last month after two decades in the empire. But that didn’t stop her from being the first arrival at the summer soiree at 4.58pm on the dot!

She was quickly followed by a flurry of News Corp personalities – Kieran Gilbert, Sharri Markson and Andrew Bolt, who sauntered along the street to ask what we were doing in Sydney.

CBD last spotted Murdoch celebrating the Brisbane Broncos stunning grand final triumph in October. And representatives of the footy club he owns were ready to be feted. Coach Michael McGuire wheeled in a suitcase, tailed by five-eighth Ben Hunt. Also there was NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.

Kellie Sloane has been NSW Liberal leader for about five minutes and is already getting the good invites, showing up flanked by husband Adam Connolly,