Locals snap up historic Northern Victorian farms

A record price has been paid for part of a tightly held, 1102-hectare farm which had been owned by the same family for 150 years.

Three parts of Boort property, Longview, have been sold through auction.

A tightly held northern Victorian property has been split between three separate buyers, achieving a record price for one parcel through auction.

On Thursday, the 1102-hectare Longview property, located 16km southeast of Boort, was offered for sale via auction in four lots by the Coutts family.

In front of a crowd of about 75 people Bob Rollinson secured the 585.15ha Longview lot ahead of a competing bidder with a winning offer of $9636 a hectare ($3900 an acre), totalling about $5.089 million.

Bob Rollinson is principal at the Concordia Merino stud, at Mysia in central Victoria, founded by his father in the 1920s.

Beyond the Concordia Merino stud, the Rollinson family also own significant pastoral holdings throughout Victoria and the NSW Riverina, including Hawks Nest and the 21,540-hectare Goolgumbla Station near Jerilderie, which is managed by Bob’s son Bruce.

Bob Rollinson during shearing at Concordia in the Mysia district of Central Victoria in 2017. Picture: File (Dale Webster)

At the Longview auction the 347.83ha Russ’s block was also sold under the hammer as a local farming family topped the bidding at about $6300 a hectare ($2550 an acre), or about $2.19 million in total.

The third lot, the 130.73-hectare Lewis’s farm, was passed in on a vendor’s bid, before being sold post-auction for an undisclosed sum. It is understood a third buyer, another local farming family, purchased the Lewis’s parcel.

Finally, the 95.43ha George Frank’s lot was also passed in through auction with negotiations ongoing post-auction.

Historically, Longview had run a sheep and wool enterprise focused on Merinos, running more than 3000 head in recent years.

The circa-1872 Longview homestead.

A key piece of the Longview property is the grand country home, a combination weatherboard, double-brick and brick-veneer homestead built in about 1872, including four bedrooms (three with fireplaces with cedar surrounds) and two bathrooms.

FP Nevins and Co Inglewood director Luke Nevins handled the sales and said the price achieved for the Longview parcel was a record for the Boort-Fernihurst district.

“The properties certainly raised a lot of local interest,” he said.

“In the last 12 months prices have backed off a fraction, there has been a stalling in prices.

“But those larger operators with greater access to funds are better placed than those who need the bank for capital.”

Originally published as Locals snap up historic Northern Victorian farms