Stockbroker and rural property baron Colin Bell dies at 80

The owner of one of Australia’s most famous pastoral runs — the FS Falkiner properties in the Riverina — has passed away aged 80.

Stockbroker Colin Bell on his Riverina pastoral ­empire.

Colin Bell — one of Australia’s more prominent landholders — has died.

Mr Bell, 80, was a stockbroker best known for founding the Bell Financial Group in 1970 but turned his hand to agriculture in 1993 and began to acquire large holdings across NSW.

Together with brothers Andrew and Lewis Bell, and Alastair Provan, the current Bell Financial Group executive chairman, the group built an agricultural empire, cherry picking some of the best-known properties across NSW.

Run under the banner of the Australian Food and Agriculture, the company owns 225,405 hectares of land with properties at Deniliquin, Hay and Coonamble.

Those properties include the former FS Falkiner prestigious stations of Boonoke, Wanganella and Peppinella near Deniliquin, Burrabogie and Mulberrygong at Hay and Netherway and Wingadee at Coonamble.

In 2017, the company set up a feedlot, which was designed to take advantage of the livestock, grain and fodder resources. It finishes homebred stock as well as purchased livestock and does some custom feeding.

Australian Food and Agriculture also has massive water resources, with almost 55,000 megalitres of water licenses in the Murray and Murrumbidgee Irrigation areas.

The AFA properties were listed for sale in 2017 at an asking price of more than $300 million but failed to sell at the time.