Barnaby Joyce jumps auctioneer’s gun, sells Tamworth family home for $1.1m

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has sold his Tamworth family home, scoring $1.1 million a day before it was due to go to auction.

The sale price reflects a 50 per cent-plus jump in value since Joyce and his former wife Natalie Abberfield bought the four-bedroom house with a swimming pool for $700,000 in 2013.

The former family home of Natalie and Barnaby Joyce in Loomberah on the outskirts of Tamworth has sold for $1.1 million.Credit: Domain

Ray White Tamworth’s Glenda Douglas had a $1 million guide when it was launched to buyers late last year, and sold it after negotiations with three buyers.

“A beautiful young family bought it, and they’re very excited. We’ve just put up the sold sticker with all the kids helping along,” Douglas said on Thursday morning.

Federal opposition spokesman for veterans’ affairs Barnaby Joyce and his wife Vikki Campion.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The 2.33 hectare property is in Loomberah on the outskirts of Tamworth.

A lot has changed for the Joyce family in the 11 years since they bought it, although the house remains in much the same condition.

At the time of the purchase, Joyce had recently withdrawn from the Senate to run in the 2013 federal election for a seat in the House of Representatives as the member for New England.

But the Joyces separated in 2017, and he was forced to step down as deputy prime minister the following year after The Daily Telegraph revealed he was having an affair with his then-staffer Vikki Campion, who was pregnant with their son Sebastian.

The following year, Joyce and Campion had another baby, Thomas, by which time his 24-year marriage to Abberfield had ended.

In 2020, court orders transferred ownership of the family home to Joyce alone.

House prices rose 5.3 per cent across the Tamworth region last year to a median of $495,000, on Domain figures.

Barnaby Joyce with his four daughters at the family home in Loomberah at Christmas, 2016.Credit: @Barnaby_Joyce on Twitter

Neither Joyce nor his office responded to a request for comment before publication.

In recent years, Joyce had reportedly lived with Campion and their sons on a cottage on the family’s long-held farm Rutherglen, in Woolbrook.

The 1821-hectare property had been owned by the Joyces since 1964 when it was bought by Joyce’s late parents James and Marie Joyce.

Title records show Joyce also owns a 970-hectare farm in the Pilliga region, the first half bought with Abberfield in Gwabegar in 2006 for $230,000 and an adjoining block added two years later for $342,000.

Joyce’s ownership of the marginal farmland, backing onto the Pilliga West State Conservation Area, caused controversy ahead of the 2013 federal election when it was revealed the land was subject to a petroleum exploration licence held by Santos.

At the time Joyce said he planned to sell the properties, acknowledging that his ownership could be “viewed as a conflict of interest” with the coal seam gas industry. However, it was never sold and Joyce has had sole ownership of both parcels since 2020.