Veteran agribusiness wheeler dealer David Williams – now masterminding Roc Partners’ bid to outsmart Macquarie for the $350 million Vitalharvest fruit orchard trust – has taken the value of his own rural portfolio to about $50 million after buying 718 hectares of pristine farmland on the banks of the Derwent River north of Hobart.

Mr Williams, founder of corporate advisory firm Kidder Williams, paid $3 million for Sorell Creek, about 19 kilometres from the Tasmanian capital.