THIS week’s property review includes this wrap-up of recently completed sales, and a separate article on interesting recent listings across the country.
- Local secures NQ’s Elrose Station
- $12m for NSW western lands lease
- NQ’s Brookdale Station sells after 130 years
- Blackall’s Benalla changes hands post auction
- CQ’s Nine Mile West makes $6.25m
- SA grazing operation added to national park
Brahman cattle on Elrose, near Cloncurry
Local secures NQ’s Elrose Station
Elrose Station in north-west Queensland has returned to local hands although the name of the buyer and the price currently remain undisclosed.
It was one of two large-scale, well-regarded grazing properties that were offered to the market in March by the family of the late Oskar Schwenk, a Swiss national who died in 2023 after earlier serving as chairman and chief executive of light aircraft manufacturer Pilatus Group.
https://dev.beefcentral.com/property/choice-large-scale-northwest-qld-properties-could-make-100m/
Colliers Agribusiness agent Rawdon Briggs confirmed Elrose had been placed under contract to a prominent family who holds assets in several states.
During the marketing campaign, it was offered bare of livestock but included a substantial inventory of plant, vehicles and equipment.
Elrose Station is a premium backgrounding and finishing operation in the highly regarded Cloncurry region, 46km from McKinlay and 64km south-east of Cloncurry.
It covers 30,756ha of freehold and leasehold land that can run 5800 Adult Equivalents.
The country has a mix of Mitchell and Flinders grass downs, creek and river frontage country and gently elevated red tableland country.
Natural water is a feature with 25km of double frontage to the Fullarton River plus an extensive system of creeks and channels, including several seasonal waterholes.
It also supports 18 dams, five equipped bores, shared bore access and connection to the Eloise Mine borefield, supported by 500mm of average annual rainfall.
Since 2021, the station has benefited from capital upgrades, including fencing improvements, two new water points, dam clean-outs and upgraded yard infrastructure.
Other improvements include a six-bedroom home, workers accommodation, three cattle yards, a large undercover sale complex and numerous sheds.
Neumayer Valley
Offered at the same time as Elrose, more or less due north is the Schwenk family’s 143,000ha Neumayer Valley used for breeding, in conjunction with Elrose for backgrounding and finishing.
Located 182km south-west of Normanton on the Leichhardt River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in a 680mm average annual rainfall region.
Red, black and grey soils from dual river frontages across shallow flood-out country lead to open and lightly timbered grazing flats, and rise to red ridges and some spinifex hills that provide safe and accessible livestock grazing areas in all seasonal conditions.
Neumayer Valley boasts more than 15km of permanent double frontage to the Alexandra River, with the Leichardt River forming its entire western boundary.
An existing 1600ML irrigation licence adds potential for future development, including complimentary silage or hay production.
Infrastructure includes a homestead complex, four steel cattle yards and numerous sheds, with a brand-new residence due to be completed in July.
Neumayer Station is offered on a walk-in, walk-out basis, including 16,000 head of cattle.
Handling the separate sales of Neumayer and Elrose, which were anticipated to realise around $100 million, are Colliers Agribusiness agents Rawdon Briggs and Jesse Manuel, and Prophurst’s Bram Pollock.
$12m for NSW western lands lease
A western lands lease opportunity in the Central Darling Shire of New South Wales has been snapped up prior to auction selling to a Booligal district producer with family ties to Ivanhoe.
The 24,423ha Waiko is situated east of Ivanhoe and comprises adjoining properties, the 16,188ha Waiko and 8235ha Woolahra.
Elders agents Jason Telford and Matt Horne were unable to disclose the name of the buyer but confirmed the property sold for around the $12 million ($494/ha) price guide.
Waiko was sold by Mark and Lee Newnham from Hay, and Rob, Nancy, Andrew and Lisa Hiscock from Kilmore in Victoria.
The country features open plains lightly timbered with wilga, belah and leopard wood. The red to grey soils are growing saltbush, bluebush, cottonbush, trefoil and crowsfoot after a great start to the season.
It has been running 5210 ewes, 2956 followers and 142 cattle.
Waiko was sold with a 193ha cultivation agreement and is watered by four equipped bores and supported by 307mm of average rainfall.
Infrastructure includes a three-bedroom home (in need of renovation), shearers quarters, a seven-stand shearing shed, steel sheep and cattle yards, two outstation yards and a shed.
NQ’s Brookdale Station sells after 130 years
John and Sue Clarke and family from Almora Station have paid $14.5 million for North Queensland’s Brookdale Station ending more than 130 years of single-family ownership.
Brookdale was offered for sale by the descendants of Oliver Smith, who settled ‘on the plains of promise’ in 1892. The 21,277ha holding is located in the Gregory district, 40km south of Burketown and 380km north of both Cloncurry and Mt Isa.
The auction attracted five registered bidders, three of which were active, and sold under the hammer for $14.5m on a walk-in walk-out basis including around 2754 of cattle.
Brookdale has brown to heavy black soil open downs, Mitchell grass plains, channels and wetland swamps, with a stringent management program to control prickly acacia, kalatrope and rubber vine.
Capable of running 3360 Adult Equivalents or 2350 breeders, Brookdale is watered by dams and multiple watercourses, rivers and dams, including the Beams Brook.
Infrastructure includes a three-bedroom home, two cattle yards and numerous sheds.
Ray White Rural agents Bruce Douglas and Liam Kirkwood handled the sale.
Blackall’s Benalla changes hands post auction
Blackall’s Benalla Station has sold immediately after auction for more than $890/ha ($360/ac) or $6.3 million to a family with significant landholdings in the Barcaldine, Morven and Mungallala districts.
The 7158ha holding is located 85km west of Blackall in central western Queensland and was offered to the market after 30 years of ownership by the Krieg family.
Ray White Rural agent Andrew Turner was unable to disclose the buyer or the price paid but described it as a strong result for the district.
Suited to cattle, sheep and goats and rated to run 640 Adult Equivalents, the purchaser is planning to use Benalla to background cattle.
In the past, the property has run around 4200 sheep (in a normal season) comprising 1800 ewes and their progeny and 1200 wethers.
The country is described as a good mix of semi open downs Mitchell grass country with areas of pulled gidgee and creek channels growing established buffel grass and an abundance of seasonal herbages.
Benalla Station is watered by a sub-bore and nine dams (four are equipped).
Infrastructure includes a partially renovated four-bedroom home, numerous sheds, new cattle yards, a six-stand shearing shed and two sheep yards. All but two of the paddocks are exclusion fenced.
CQ’s Nine Mile West makes $6.25m
Neighbours Jeff and Ryan Holzwart have paid $6.25m ($6294/ha) at auction to expand with a well grassed backgrounding and finishing opportunity in Queensland’s Central Highlands.
Owned by Dean Armstrong for 20 years, the 993ha Nine Mile West is situated 23km south-west of Comet and 61km east of Emerald.
During the marketing campaign, Nutrien Harcourts GDL agent Tim Maguire reported a significant number of inspections from locals, near neighbours and neighbours seeking to expand their existing holdings.
“The sale of Nine Mile West was in line with market expectations. Right now, there is evidence to suggest that buoyant demand has come off the top. However, there are plenty of buyers in the market at that price level.”
The country ranges from brigalow, yellow wood softwood scrubs to brigalow, blackbutt and box growing abundant feed including buffel, Rhodes, urochloa and seca stylo.
Water is provided by five dams and a bore.
SA grazing operation added to national park
Nilpena Station in the northern Flinders Ranges has been purchased by the South Australian government for $4 million to expand the adjacent, and state’s newest, national park by a further 26,000ha.
The Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which officially opened in 2023, will now span around 86,000ha boosting the national target to protect and conserve 30 percent of Australia’s landmass by 2030.
Nilpena Station was settled by Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith in 1859 and was acquired by the Fargher family in the early 1980s.
After the discovery of Ediacaran fossils, the South Australian government paid $2.2 million for two-thirds of the property in 2019 to ensure the fossils were protected and expand the adjacent Ediacara Conservation Park. In 2021, the area was declared the Nilpena Ediacara National Park.
It is treasured for its collection of fossils containing Earth’s earliest complex animal life. The fossil bed known as ‘Alice’s Restaurant Bed’ is the focal point of a visit and showcases multi-cellular animal life that lived 560-540 million years ago.
Station owners Ross and Jane Fargher have been working with Jason Irving, head of the national parks program, for the past seven years and acting as caretakers of the fossil beds until a ranger was appointed.
Last month, the Farghers decided to sell the rest of Nilpena to the government, concerned the next owners may not be interested in fossils.
As well as the impressive fossil beds, the Nilpena National Park is known to support native species such as dunnarts, quolls, snakes and lizards. The newly acquired land will facilitate conservation work to protect the endangered thick-billed grass wren and the possible re-introduction of the bilby to the region.