• Minnamurra offers quality Gunnedah, Dirranbandi assets
• Leinster mixed enterprise to go under the hammer
• Clermont’s Doongmabulla highly regarded
• Eidsvold Station remains in good hands, after unconventional succession plan

 

Minnamurra offers quality Gunnedah, Dirranbandi assets

The well-known Minnamurra Pastoral Co is selling its 11,330ha Glenrowan aggregation in northern New South Wales, together with its 12,053ha southern Queensland property, Oinmurra.

MPC was established by Bruce Reid in 1974. Since that time the Reid family has expanded its footprint across NSW and into southern Qld to hold over 150,000ha of prime grazing and cropping country. Minnamurra currently runs about 18,000 head of cattle, 25,000 sheep and 5000 hectares of cereal crops.

Glenrowan , situated 50km west of Gunnedah on the edge of the Liverpool Plains, is made up of an aggregation of 16 properties including Oatley Park, which is the food bowl to support Minnamurra’s extensive grazing and fattening operation, plus its 1000 head feedlot.

The sale of the aggregation will result in the relocation of the Speckle Park commercial and stud herds to their new home, Mount Mill at Coolah in NSW, a recently acquired addition to the Minnamurra land portfolio.

The second property, Oinmurra, lies 60km north-west of Dirranbandi above the Qld/NSW border, and carries 1000 Angus breeders. It carries well established buffel pastures and is reliably watered, with supply from a capped and piped artesian bore sunk in 1984 servicing the homestead complex and grazing paddocks via seven tanks and 31 troughs. There are also three additional earth dams.

• Oinmurra is being auctioned through Elders in St George on September 30. Expressions of interest are being sought for Glenrowan closing with Elders on October 7.

 

Leinster mixed enterprise to go under the hammer

More than 18,000ha of quality Maranoa district farming and grazing country, all Certified for Organic beef production, will be offered for sale by auction in October.

Owned and operated by Adrian and Margaret Tiller since 1973, Leinster is a genuine mixed farming/grazing enterprise offering an outstanding cash flow opportunity through cattle, sheep, goats and ‘grain or graze’ broadacre cropping opportunities.

It is located near Roma in the heart of the Maranoa district. The property has undergone significant pasture, fencing and water improvements over the past 44 years.

Leinster includes a cattle carrying capacity of 4000 cows or equivalent backgrounders, safe and secure lamb production and the ability to turnoff up to 60,000 goats for the local abattoir each year.

Leinster was identified by the Tillers almost half a century ago as a unique development opportunity due to its soil, geographical and vegetation attributes. The significant spread of buffel grass combined with native bluegrass and kangaroo grasses, along with strategic native vegetation management has achieved a stable and productive open grassland. The red Kurrajong soils are ideal for oats and legumes.

The holding includes 23 subdivided paddocks which facilitate rotational grazing, all double-fenced to exclude pigs, kangaroos and dogs. The unique double fencing includes its own boundary exclusion fence, as well as being enclosed by the Mungallala & Toomoo Creek CAM fences. Well-planned laneway systems provide an easy-to-use avenue by which stock can be brought back to the central yards.

A sub-artesian bore, as well as 35 dams, troughs and creeks provide year-round, secure water to the entire property. There are also two airstrips and adjoining hanger to the main strip.

An historic colonial homestead and quarters are complimented by a modern home with plenty of room for the resident manager and their family.

• Trenton Hindman of Colliers International is marketing the property via auction, being held in Brisbane on 14 October.

 

Clermont’s Doongmabulla highly regarded

Central Highlands grazing property Doongmabulla, a highly-regarded and productive grazing property northwest of Clermont, will go to auction in Clermont on 19 October.

The 79,000ha breeding, backgrounding and finishing property is being offered on a walk-in, walk-out basis including 4000 females plus calves.

Offering a good mix of county ranging from pulled gidyea and brigalow/blackbutt scrub to semi-open forest and soft desert country, Doongmabulla has consistently carried up to 7000 breeders for vendors, the O’Sullivan family.

An abundance of natural water is a feature of the property. Stock water is sourced from 10 bores, three dams, springs and waterholes, plus substantial beneficial flood out from numerous creeks and the Carmichael River.

Located 220km northwest of Clermont on the Elgin/Moray Downs Road, Doongmabulla is a rolling term lease, which has been extended to 2048. The holding is subdivided into 25 main paddocks and numerous holding and smaller paddocks, with an extensive internal laneway network.

Improvements include a main homestead, cottage and quarters, machinery sheds, workshop and hay sheds. There are four sets of steel cattle yards.

• Hoch and Wilkinson, Clermont are handling the auction on October 19. Contact John Wilkinson 0429 832 797.

 

Eidsvold Station remains in good hands, after ‘unconventional’ succession plan

After more than a century of ownership, the Joyce family’s Eidsvold Station and its adjoining breeding blocks near the town of the same name in Central Queensland have recently been sold.

New owners Rick and Alice Greenup, who have bought the properties for an undisclosed sum, took over the management of the Eidsvold Station Santa herd in 2006 and a staged purchase of the cattle and the land followed.

Barney Joyce OBE established the Eidsvold Station Santa Gertrudis Stud in 1953, and with the closure of King Ranch, Stud 1, Eidsvold Station became the oldest Santa Gertrudis stud in Australia.

Barney Joyce’s nephew, Anthony Coates, reflects on how this unconventional succession plan came to fruition.

“Barney had aspirations and a vision for the Santa Gertrudis breed and the role Eidsvold Station would play in that future. He put together an aggregation of four blocks – a combination of breeding and fattening country to meet this growing demand,” Mr Coates said.

“When our children decided not to continue the business, my wife Sally and I had some tough decisions to make.  We probably could have sold off the blocks separately, but that would have destroyed Barney’s plan and I believed that it was a good unit, and it should stay together.  Selling the unit as whole – the herd and land to someone who appreciated the heritage and the stud background was the best outcome,” he said.

“I was attracted to Rick and Alice’s approach to business and their philosophy on breeding and grazing management to produce a sustainable enterprise.”

“We shared a passion for breeding cattle that would perform well without being pampered and wanted cattle that honestly produced a quality product under the conditions they were asked to perform in,” he said.

The plan was for the Greenups to lease the breeding herd and buy it over four years, and lease the land and buy it over the next few years.

“The plan didn’t go in a perfect straight line; it took longer than planned, but with give and take we achieved what we all set out to do,” Mr Coates said.

“We will leave Eidsvold Station with sadness, but feel satisfied that what our family built, has gone into good hands.”

Rick Greenup said the process had been a long haul, and there were times when he and Alice questioned how they would pull it off, and had to push the final settlement out a couple of years.

“There were years when we felt we had little to show for the hard work.” Mr Greenup said.

“In 2011 and 2013 we were hit by floods which wiped out huge tracts of land and improvements and really set us back.  Then there was the drought in 2014 and the Australian cattle market collapse. All of which was a learning curve for us.”

“We are hugely grateful to Anthony and Sally Coates for the opportunity to build on their legacy and standing by us during some tough years. We’re excited to be a part of the beef industry, and we are enjoying the ride,” Mr Greenup said.