Australian Food and Agriculture to sell 225,000ha NSW farmland portfolio

About 225,000ha of NSW farmland, including the famous Boonoke and Wanganella stations near Deniliquin, are set to be formally listed for sale.

The Boonoke Station is part of AFA’s 122,935 hectares near Deniliquin and Conargo.

One of the nation’s biggest agricultural companies, Australian Food and Agriculture, and its massive 225,000ha NSW property portfolio will soon be up for grabs in what is the biggest farmland offering this year.

The Weekly Times can reveal that a formal sale process of the AFA business will soon begin, with historic sheep stations Wanganella and Boonoke — regarded as the birthplace of the modern Merino sheep — set to hit the market as part of the offering.

The massive Riverina and central-west NSW portfolio comprises 225,405ha across 18 farms near Deniliquin, Hay and Coonamble and almost 54,700 megalitres of water licences in the Murrumbidgee and Murray irrigation areas.

Industry sources have suggested the portfolio could be worth well in excess of $600 million, depending on the terms of any potential deal regarding water entitlements and existing crops and livestock.

AFA is owned by stockbroking brothers Andrew and Lewis Bell from the ASX-listed Bell Financial Group, Bell Financial Group managing director Alastair Provan and US billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio.

The Boonoke Station homestead.

Fellow stockbroker and brother of Andrew and Lewis Bell, the late Colin Bell, was also part of the partnership which owned AFA.

Bell Potter, a stockbroking and financial advisory subsidiary of the Bell Financial Group, has been appointed to handle the upcoming sale campaign.

This is not the first time the AFA portfolio has been up for grabs, with the aggregation offered for sale privately in 2017, only as a whole.

At the time a price of $330 million was reported, however since then rural property values have surged dramatically.

The late Colin Bell at the Boonoke Station.

The consortium purchased the FSF Falkiner portfolio of five stations between Conargo and Deniliquin from News Limited and the Murdoch family in 2000, with a covenant attached that stops the historic Wanganella and Boonoke sheep stations being sold separately or their sheep studs being ­dispersed.

In total, the Deniliquin portion of the portfolio comprises about 123,000ha including landmark stations Wanganella and Boonoke as well as Baratta, Peppin­ella, Warriston and Zara.

The consortium also owns about 65,000ha near Hay including the properties Burrabogie, Kolora and Mulberry.

The Coonamble group of farms, about 160km north of Dubbo, span 44,181ha including the previously foreign-owned Wingadee and Netherby stations.

Across the portfolio there is 22,000ha of dryland cropping and 11,000ha of irrigated rice, cotton and wheat cropping.

About 100,000 Merino wool sheep, 15,000 cattle and more than 14,000 stud sheep are carried across the AFA portfolio.

The Wanganella Station and Boonoke legacy dates back to the 1860s when George Peppin and his sons decided to breed the modern Merino, a sheep more suitable to their environment, having been unable to sell the property.

In 1873 the Peppin Brothers purchased Boonoke to form the now famed pastoral run.