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

• CQ cattle enterprise passes in at auction
• Off-market Bollon Aggregation sells for $15m
• Northern buyer secures Augathella’s Valera Vale
• CQ family relocates to New England aggregation

Mackenzie River frontage with leucaena development, distant, on Dumbarton near Dingo

CQ cattle enterprise passes in at auction

Elders is negotiating with interested parties after a well-developed cattle enterprise in Queensland’s Central Highlands failed to sell at auction.

Citing a change of direction after 13 years of ownership, Rudi Palinkas and Liz Thorby are selling the 4662ha Dumbarton located in the desirable Mackenzie/Duaringa district.

Dumbarton, pictured above, is home to the Uplands Braford Stud, as well as the couple’s commercial Braford and Brahman herd and a 1000 Standard Cattle Unit approved feedlot.

Currently, Dumbarton is running 1000 breeders and between 400 and 600 backgrounders of cattle on improved pastures, a good body of native grasses and summer and winter herbages.

It is offered with two water allocations totalling 520ML supporting two centre pivots with 162ha under irrigation to leucaena, as well as sorghum for forage crops and silage. A third centre pivot, yet to be installed, will irrigate a further 40ha.

The property is also watered by 14 dams.

Elders agent Leah Freney said the property’s secure water and 5.5km of Mackenzie River frontage allowed for potential expansion of the irrigated cropping areas and the feedlot.

Infrastructure includes a three-bedroom home, a three-bedroom cottage, workers accommodation, numerous sheds and cattle yards.

Off-market Bollon Aggregation sells for $15m

Jim Scott from Adavale has paid $15 million ($719/ha) for a fully exclusion fenced cattle and sheep breeding, backgrounding and finishing enterprise in the Balonne region of south-west Queensland.

The 20,853ha Acme Downs and Janalian Aggregation, comprising the 8745ha Acme Downs and the 12,108ha Janalian, is located 50km south-west of Bollon and 160km north-west of Dirranbandi.

Aggregated by Greg and Donna Edwards in 2019, the enterprise is estimated to run between 1000 and 1500 cows or equivalent sheep.

The level to gently undulating land consists of 6513ha of poplar box woodlands, 5512ha of open alluvial plains, 2615ha of gidgee, 2449ha of wooded alluvial plains, 1744ha of brigalow with melon holes, 1482ha of soft mulga, 421ha of cypress pine on duplex soils and 117ha of brigalow.

The soils are a balance of red loams and grey cracking clays.

A capped and piped pressurised artesian groundwater bore (GABSI) on the Janalian aquifer reticulates water across the aggregation, supported by 459mm of average annual rainfall.

The properties also benefit from the Patterson watercourse which provides more than 3700ha of beneficial flood-out area.

Infrastructure includes a five-bedroom home, a three-bedroom home, a shearing shed, four sheep yards, cattle yards, two 70-tonne silos and numerous sheds.

The off-market sale was handled by LAWD agents Grant Veivers and Simon Cudmore.

Buffel grass on Acme Downs after recent rain

Northern buyer secures Augathella’s Valera Vale

A northern buyer has secured Valera Vale in south-west Queensland for backgrounding purposes, following an expressions of interest campaign that closed at the end of March.

Owned by the Flynn family for 40 years, the 9858ha highly-regarded growing and finishing operation is located 22km south-west of Augathella and 45km north-east of Charleville.

Valera Vale, which was home to the renowned Valera Vale Droughtmaster stud, is suited to backgrounding around 2500 head of cattle.

The country is mostly brigalow and gidgee scrub valleys established to improved pastures, including buffel and urochloa, as well as lightly shaded river plains and channels.

Leichardt Group agent Scott Kostecki was unable to disclose the buyer or the price paid. However, during the marketing campaign, he said ongoing pasture improvement (extensive blade ploughing and regrowth control) had significantly increased Valera Vale’s carrying capacity and animal performance.

“In addition, there have been substantial gains in pasture availability and management from the recently completed exclusion fence which secures around 8000ha above the river country,” he said.

Water is supplied by a shared equipped bore, supporting dams, semi-permanent waterholes along the 11km frontage along the Warrego and Nive Rivers and seasonal waterholes in the Yo Yo, Winters and CB Creeks.

Extensively developed by the Flynn family, Valera Vale boasts institutional-standard infrastructure. It includes a five-bedroom home, a renovated cottage, a nine-bedroom worker complex, modern steel cattle yards, an attached stud selling arena and numerous sheds.

Droughtmaster registered breeders on Valera Vale, one of the first tropically-adapted bull producers to include Genomic Breeding Values in its catalogue

CQ family relocates to New England aggregation

A Central Queensland family wishing to relocate has paid $19.2 million for a quality cattle and cropping enterprise in the New England region of northern New South Wales.

Located 13km from Deepwater and 52km from Glen Innes, the 3537ha Echo Aggregation consists of seven contiguous smaller properties – 366ha Echo, 452ha Cloudy Hills, 664ha Carrot Farm, 518ha Bushgrove, 518ha Rockabbey, 518ha Sugarloaf and 500ha Bingeye.

Marketed as a carbon credit venture, the holding had been extensively developed by vendors Herde Land Pty Ltd and Raguz Land Pty Ltd.

The productive enterprise is used to breed and finish around 2600 adult equivalents on improved and timbered grazing land.

In recent years, the vendors had invested in water infrastructure and fencing and converted native pastures to cultivation, with around 16ha developed to centre pivot irrigation and 877ha to dryland cropping growing oats, barley and corn.

LAWD agent Darren Collins was unable to disclose the buyer or the price paid, but during the marketing campaign he identified potential for carbon offsets and biodiversity stewardship payments.

“Armidale-based carbon advisor, Precision Pastures, has identified the aggregation’s primarily loamy traprock soils as being ideal for carbon sequestration,” he said.

Preliminary due diligence had also been conducted to analyse options for carbon offsets for tree sequestration and biodiversity stewardship payments across further areas of the landholding, Mr Collins said.

Water is sourced from 13km of dual frontage to the Deepwater River, the Bow Creek, watercourses, several gullies and 34 catchment dams. Added security is offered via a 104ML water licence from the Mole River.

Improvements include five homes, five cattle and sheep yards, three shearing sheds, numerous sheds and 108-tonnes of grain storage.