Rowe family puts massive Wertaloona Station on the market
Have you got a spare $14 million to $18 million dollars and fancy a sea change to the Flinders Ranges? Wertaloona Station could be the buy for you.
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A Flinders Ranges station three times the size of Adelaide has been put up for sale by one of the livestock industry’s best-known families and it is expected to make between $14 million to $18 million.
The Rowe family, of the Princess Royal enterprise based out of Burra, has put one of South Australia’s largest pastoral land holdings Wertaloona Station on the market.
The organically certified-station covers a massive 254,900 hectares and it has a maximum stocking rate of either 5940 cattle or 29,700 sheep.
Princess Royal was established by Simon Rowe and his father, the late Bob Rowe, a legendary cattle trader and one of the most influential men in the development of the state’s livestock industry.
Simon has continued to grow the business, working together with his children, Rebecca, Jack and Katherine.
Princess Royal owns numerous livestock properties in the Mid North and operates its own state-of-the-art feedlot, which was designed to create an efficient and low-stress environment for cattle.
Simon said Wertaloona Station was not central to the family’s current strategic plan for the business.
“The forecast growth in demand for high quality and safe Australian protein is compelling,” Simon said.
“We believe that having the capacity to consistently deliver high quality product into both domestic and international markets will allow us, and our suppliers, to continue to grow into the future. Accordingly, our primary focus has shifted to our trading and feedlotting operations and our pastoral holdings in the Flinders have ceased to be strategically compelling in the context of our overall portfolio and future direction. We have therefore taken the decision to divest Wertaloona in order to reinvest the capital into the growth of our feedlotting operations.”
Elders general manager real estate Tom Russo and rural real estate manager SA/NT Phil Keen are undertaking the sale process.
Mr Russo said it was hard to put a value on the property.
“It’s difficult to find any comparable sales of this scale and quality,” he said.
“But we believe the market will see value at between $450 to $600 per sheep equivalent.”
Mr Keen said the sale offered a rare opportunity.
“We understand that the holding has had no more than three owners since it was established as a pastoral lease in the 1850s. The sale therefore represents a truly rare opportunity to acquire one of the largest pastoral holdings in South Australia,” he said.
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Wertaloona is located within the North Flinders District, sitting on the edge of Lake Frome and the Gammon Rangers National Park. The holding features iconic landscapes such as Chambers Gorge and Big John Creek.
“The property is presently an European Union-accredited and organically certified beef cattle station,” Mr Keen said.
“Having said that, Wertaloona is also suitable for sheep meat and wool production.”
Wertaloona is being offered for sale through expressions of interest, which close on March 6.