Cox Family sells Booabula Station in a deal reportedly worth $15m-plus

Booabula Station has been sold in an off-market deal, with a local buyer securing the farm in a deal reportedly worth millions.

With a Federation-style homestead and more than 6700ha of prime grazing country, the Booabula Station is one of the most prized properties in the Southern Riverina.

And now, for the first time in almost a decade, the property has been sold to a local buyer in an off-market deal worth a reported $15m-plus.

In 2014 the Cox family snapped up Booabula Station, located 52km from Deniliquin, through an auction, paying around $5m, and in just eight years the farm has tripled in value.

After acquiring the Billabong Creek holding, the undisclosed local buyer was likely to return Booabula Station to a Merino sheep-breeding operation.

CBRE associate director and selling agent Boo Harvey said it was rare to see such a property on the market in what is a tightly-held region.

“Booabula is an outstanding property, which ideally suited the purchaser’s needs for a grazing property in the Riverina with the security of some irrigation,” she said.

“Grazing properties of this scale and quality are very tightly held, with the transaction secured off-market, in a successful outcome for both parties.”

Booabula Station

After purchasing the Wanganella farm, the Cox family have run between 800 and 1000 breeders at Booabula, as well as growing dryland and irrigated winter cereals.

In 1994, the Redeski family purchased the property and converted it to a beef cattle breeding operation with some rice and hay production after moving from their station northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Prior to this transaction, the property was home to the renowned Booabula Merino Stud.

Farms in the NSW Riverina continue to be some of the most in demand in the country with investors chasing secure, low-input grazing land.

Ms Harvey said Southern Riverina grazing land was commanding around more than $1000 per dry sheep equivalent (DSE) and $2000 per wheat tonne equivalent depending on individual conditions.

In March, the Withers aggregation, near Berrigan in the Southern Riverina, sold through an auction for a figure in excess of $33m.