Four and a half years after an abduction that transfixed the nation, the family of Cleo Smith has quietly sold the South Carnarvon house at the centre of one of Australia's most anguishing missing-child cases. Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon have moved on, completing the sale of their three-bedroom fibro home last month for $320,000 — a figure that tells its own story about the dramatic transformation of the WA Gascoyne property market, as reported by 7News.
The couple bought the South Carnarvon property in April 2021, paying $120,000 for the steel-post home on a 729-square-metre block near the Carnarvon boat harbour. It was where they waited through 18 days of anguish in October and November of that year, as WA Police conducted one of the largest land and sea searches in the state's history after Cleo was taken from her sleeping bag at the Quobba Blowholes campsite, about 70 kilometres north of Carnarvon. The sale price represents a gain of more than 160 per cent in just under five years — a result that would raise eyebrows in most capital city markets, let alone a small regional town.
The family had not been living in the property for close to two years before the sale, 7News reports. Instead, they converted it to an investment property as rental demand in the area surged sharply. South Carnarvon rents climbed to a median of $1,500 per week, compared with a median of $475 per week in 2020, reflecting the resource-driven pressures that have pushed housing costs well beyond the reach of many locals across regional WA. Broader Gascoyne region house prices have risen approximately 66 per cent over the same period, from a median of around $285,000 in 2020 to roughly $475,000 now, according to 7News.
The family have since settled into a larger five-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the Carnarvon region, which they purchased for $375,000 about two years ago. The gain on the South Carnarvon sale meant the upgrade cost them very little net outlay — a small but genuine financial silver lining amid years of difficulty. Reports suggest the $2 million the family received from a media organisation for an exclusive interview has not been directed toward property purchases, with speculation that the funds have been set aside for their children's futures.
The wider context of the case remains sobering. Terence Darrell Kelly, who pleaded guilty to abducting Cleo from the Blowholes campsite in the early hours of 16 October 2021 and holding her at his South Carnarvon home for the full 18 days, was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison. His subsequent appeal to reduce that term was rejected by the WA Court of Appeal in September 2024. He must serve at least 11 and a half years before he is eligible for parole, backdated to his arrest on 3 November 2021.
The surge in regional property values that benefited the family financially is not straightforwardly good news for the Gascoyne community. Rapid price growth of the kind seen in Carnarvon and surrounding areas creates real affordability pressures for lower-income residents and renters, many of whom are Indigenous Australians or workers in the agricultural and fishing sectors. The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia tracks ongoing price movements across the region, and the data shows a market that has moved well beyond what many local earners can sustain. Policy responses from state and federal governments on regional housing supply have, to date, been insufficient to match the pace of price growth.
Through it all, the Smith-Gliddon family have largely kept their lives private. Glimpses shared publicly have been deliberately positive: a wedding in 2023, photos of Cleo's seventh birthday, and, more recently, an image of her winning a gold medal at her first gymnastics competition. For a child whose earliest years were so publicly consumed by trauma, these ordinary milestones carry an outsized weight. The sale of the South Carnarvon house appears to be another quiet, deliberate step in the same direction: forward, on their own terms, with as little fuss as possible. The Western Australian government has not commented on the family's circumstances.