THIS week’s property review includes this wrap-up of recently completed sales, and a separate article on interesting recent listings across the country.

• Wollogorang & Wentworth settle for $53m
• Bowen Downs sells prior to auction
• Above reserve for Dalby’s Bellevue Station
• $12.6m for Blackall’s Listowel Downs
• Ben Lomond country makes $11,600/ha
• $11m for NSW Tablelands quality grazing
• Neighbours secure Surat’s Cooraki
• Reliable Dawson Valley calf factory sells after auction

 Wollogorang & Wentworth settle for $53m

Settlement has been reached on the large-scale Gulf of Carpentaria district grazing properties Wollogorang and Wentworth, with the price confirmed as $53 million.

Back in March, Property Central revealed Cloncurry’s McMillan Pastoral Co had purchased the 4814sq km property from wealthy Chinese businessman Xingfa Ma after just four years of ownership. Price was not disclosed at that time.

The McMillan family owns the adjoining Calvert Hills station, situated west of Wollogorang and 80km from the Queensland border in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Straddling the NT/QLD Queensland borders facing the Gulf, the Wollogorang and Wentworth aggregation comprises 576,198ha Wollogorang to the west of the border, and the adjoining 129,000ha Wentworth station to the east.

The two stations were sold on a walk-in, walk-out basis with 30,000 head of Brahman cattle and comprehensive station plant.

The holdings were marketed through an expressions of interest campaign by Ray White Rural.

Darwin-based Herron Todd White land valuer Frank Peacocke believes Wollogorang and Wentworth were reasonably priced.

“They are difficult properties to value because they are unique in terms of size and location. When you analyse the last sale price ($47m) and the current sale price ($53m) there isn’t much difference, and the reason is, the 2015 sale was considered above market value.”

Mr Peacocke said given the McMillans were adjoining owners, there was usually a premium attached.

“Looking at the dollar values per unit of productivity (beast area value), what the buyer paid is supported by a reasonable range of sales evidence. If Xingfa Ma had paid around market value in 2015, he would have paid less, and the price today would have better reflected the 35 percent growth in NT pastoral prices.”

Not only that, the Chinese businessman spent between $4m and $5m on capital expenditure (including upgrading fencing, waters, poly pipe and yards infrastructure), so the price paid for Wollogorang and Wentworth does not reflect the same increase in other market values,” he said.

Bowen Downs sells prior to auction

Muttaburra’s historic Bowen Downs has been snapped up prior to auction by neighbours Greg and Leanne Boyd.

A month ago, the Boyds sold their 3560ha cattle enterprise Leeora Downs, in Central Queensland’s sought-after Arcadia Valley, to make possible the Bowen Downs purchase. The Boyd’s Springdale Land and Cattle Co owns four blocks to the east of Bowen Downs.

Located 70km north west of Aramac and 236km from Blackall, the 62,805ha cattle and sheep aggregation consists of the 44,500ha Bowen Downs and the adjoining blocks, Camara and Wilton.

Bowen Downs was established in 1863, and subsequently managed for 110 years, by the Scottish-Australian Co.

In 2012, it was secured for $9.7m ($154/ha) by Bill Hartley and family, who owned the neighbouring Camara and Wilton, to the west of Bowen Downs.

The country is predominantly open Mitchell/Flinders grass downs interspersed with gidgee/vine tree and is suited to breeding, backgrounding and fattening or wool growing. Water is underpinned by eight artesian bores pumping into a series of turkey nests and poly tanks which then pump or reticulate to a network of troughs.

No price was disclosed by the agents handling the sale, Rural Property & Livestock and JLL.

Above reserve for Bellevue Station

Meantime, a Dalby-based family has paid above the reserve price for the southern Queensland backgrounding cattle operation, Bellevue Station.

Clayton Smith from JLL said Bellevue sold for $1.89m ($707/ha) at an online auction, after wide interest.

“Bellevue was purchased by a local family looking to secure a mixed farming and grazing enterprise. For them, the opportunity had added attraction due to its ideal position relative to their existing base,” he said.

Located 27km south of Tara and 100km west of Dalby on the Western Darling Downs, Bellevue is underpinned by brigalow and belah soils and established stands of native and improved pasture.

Its 2674ha of country has been developed to operate as a low-input fattening and backgrounding enterprise, complemented by pasture and fodder production.

The topography allows strong overland flow captured in multiple dams throughout the property.

$12.6m for Listowel Downs

As mentioned in an article published on Friday, a North Queensland grazing family has paid $12.6 million for the renowned Blackall grazing property Listowel Downs.

Located 90km south of Blackall in the highly regarded black soil downs belt of Western Queensland, the 25,702ha beef and sheep property boasts scale and quality country.

Featuring clay soils and lightly shaded gidgee and boree timber, the country type is suitable for breeding and fattening on Mitchell and buffel grasses, as well as a variety of annual herbages currently in season.

Improvements are in good condition and include multiple dams plus tank and trough facilities, and good fencing.

Carrying an organic certificate of compliance, Listowel Downs can carry up to 4000 adult equivalents or 25,000 sheep.

Sustainable Land Management Australia paid $11.2m for Listowel Downs in 2012 as part of a $60m aggregation. It was offered to the market in October 2016 but passed in on a vendor’s bid of $12.5m.

Ben Lomond country makes $11,600/ha

Well known northern New South Wales beef producer John Jackson has paid $4.8 million ($11,595/ha) for the 414ha Ben Lomond grazing property Oakholme.

Mr Jackson is an adjoining landholder who heads up the Armidale-based Jackson Agriculture – an Australian meat industry company that finishes grass-fed steers for domestic and international customers.

His other properties include Suaramez at Armidale, Braeside and Winston Park at Ben Lomond and Lakeside at Walcha.

Located 28km from Guyra and 36km to Glen Innes, Ray White Rural NSW co-director Andrew Starr said Oakholme is considered a high-yielding property.

“Situated on top of the Great Dividing Range, 1400m above sea level, Ben Lomond is held in high regard for its elevation, rich basalt soils and high average annual rainfall – which is a difficult combination to find,” he said.

Mr Starr said the property attracted local and interstate interest and sold under the hammer after 47 years of ownership by the Melville family.

“The price paid indicated a strong market dynamic. It was a positive endorsement for interest in high-rainfall, basalt grazing land following 2019 and in the midst of the uncertain COVID-19 environment.”

$11m for NSW Tablelands grazing

A couple from southern New South Wales has paid the $11 million asking price for Boree, situated in an area regarded as some of the finest tablelands grazing land in New South Wales.

The blue ribbon, high-rainfall grazing property spans 1111ha and is located within the Northern Tablelands region, 7km west of Walcha.

Boree features fertile soils, quality improvements and secure water sources.

There is an extensive reticulated water system and laneway network, boosting both management and productivity efficiency.

Over the last seven years, the property has displayed the capacity to background an average of 1850 steers per annum on a nine to 10-month trade. This equates to between 15,000 to 20,000 DSE or 14 to 18 DSE per hectare on an annualised basis.

Col Medway and Richie Inglis from CBRE Agribusiness handled the sale which equates to $9901/ha.

Neighbours secure Cooraki

The Price Family from Mount Hope, Wallumbilla, has paid $3.85 million, or the equivalent of about $1809/ha for the neighbouring Surat mixed farming property Cooraki, in southern Queensland.

Featuring 2128ha of undulating heavy black soil downs to undulating Bauhinia and Griman Creek frontage, the property has received substantial rainfall and is presenting extremely well.

The 404ha of cultivation consists of good heavy, self-mulching soil suited to forage crops for background fattening sheep and/or cattle. However, it is equally as suitable to cropping wheat, sorghum and pulses.

Cooraki is watered by six dams plus semi-permanent holes in the Griman Creek, as well as bores and troughs. It has been owned by David Waldron since 2014, who is selling to dissolve a family partnership.

The sale of Cooraki was handled by David Benham from McGrath.

Reliable calf factory sells after auction

Hinemoa, the reliable calf factory in the Central Queensland’s Dawson Valley, was sold immediately after auction last week to Lunar Holdings, Comet, for $2.9 million.

Spanning 4456ha, the property is situated at Mimosa, 32km from Baralaba and 40km from Moura.

Hinemoa features predominately forest country interspersed with good areas of open country, originally timbered with brigalow, belah and box.

Over 12 years, Bailey Grazing had invested time and money into water infrastructure, timber control, renovating country by pulling and stick raking, as well as establishing improved pastures that can conservatively run 450 breeders.

Hinemoa is watered by a 12km dual frontage to Perch Creek, as well as two bores and a dam that is equipped with a solar pump.

The sale was handled by Brad Hanson from Hourn and Bishop Qld.

 

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