150 years of family farming history sold at auction

A renowned family farming partnership have sold their 936ha four-farm aggregation in northern Victoria for millions.

Two local buyers have secured parts of the 936ha Brown Aggregation, located at Yalca in northern Victoria.

Local families have snapped up four non-contingent landholdings as 150 years of farming history in northern Victoria changed hands at a recent auction.

Operating under the Piree Partnership, Ernie and Margaret Brown, along with Donald and Vicki Brown, have sold their Brown Aggregation, which spans a combined 936ha at Yalca, through auction.

A notable crowd piled into the Yalca North Recreation Reserve on Friday, April 11, to see all four of the aggregation’s properties sold for a combined value of more than $8 million, with three trading under the hammer.

Nearby farmers Leigh and Jane Waiser purchased the 377ha lot 1, the 210ha lot 2, and the 232ha lot 4, while Jason and Virginia Stone bought the 116ha lot 3.

Lot 1, Moira Park was sold for $10,159 a hectare, or about $3.83m, while lot 2, Grassmere East, was sold for $9143 a hectare, or $1.92m, following spirited bidding.

Lot 4, McKinnons, was initially passed in for $7413 a hectare, before being sold to the Waiser family immediately following the sale for an undisclosed sum.

The Stone family was the successful purchaser of lot 3, Part Grassmere, which was sold for $7672 a hectare, or about $890,000.

“The Brown family are pillars of the local community and to see several buyers emerge on the day and compete for their long-held holdings is a really fitting result” Elders Real Estate agent and auctioneer Matt Horne said.

The largest holding of the aggregation, Moira Park, featured red loam soils well-suited to broadacre cropping, with seven paddocks serviced by pressurised stock water troughs, 25 hectares of established lucerne plus a five-bedroom brick veneer home.

Under the Brown family’s stewardship, the aggregation was successfully managed as a mixed-farming enterprise focused on cereal and hay production alongside a livestock program comprising 1000 first-cross ewes and 40-50 Angus cows.

The Brown Aggregation is also the first major dryland cropping country to be offered to market in the district since the 456.4ha broadacre property, The Pines, sold by Ian Jackson in November 2019.

“The property had been held by the Jackson family for over 70 years, we had a packed Rec Reserve club house to witness and participate in the auction, and the Waiser family were the successful purchasers following a marathon auction that seen in excess of 20 bids,” Mr Horne said.

710ha Pineleigh at Corowa, NSW, was passed in through auction for $7m.

Meanwhile north of the border, post-auction negotiations are continuing for the 710ha mixed farming property, Pineleigh, located 22km north of Corowa.

The property was initially passed in for $7m through auction with multiple parties now in negotiations for the holding, via Elders Real Estate Albury.

Pineleigh was traditionally been used for mixed farming producing a canola, wheat and lucerne rotation in conjunction with a fat lamb enterprise running 800-1000 crossbred ewes.

Originally published as 150 years of family farming history sold at auction