Australian poultry pioneer David Bartter sells 26,839ha Ballandry Station

An enormous 16-farm aggregation, spanning 26,800ha, has been sold after it was listed for sale with a $120 million price tag earlier this year.

An Australian poultry pioneer has sold his whopping 26,839ha northern Riverina station, striking a nine-figure deal after offering it to the market for the third time in five years.

David Bartter’s Ballandry Station, located 37km north and northwest of Griffith, has been sold after hitting the market earlier this year with a $120 million asking price.

CBRE Agribusiness’s Boo Harvey handled the sale, with a statement released confirming a joint venture between an Australian farmer and a Canadian investment fund had acquired the aggregation.

Industry sources have indicated the rapidly expanding Excel Farms are the purchasers of Ballandry.

Excel Farms, headquartered at Ararat in western Victoria, is a partnership between Nick Paterson – the son of prominent Western District landholders and ACE Radio founders Rowly and Judy Paterson and Canada’s Fiera Comox Partners.

David Bartter has sold his 26,839ha Ballandry Station aggregation.

The value of the transaction, which has received FIRB approval, remains undisclosed, but it has been confirmed the deal was struck on walk-in-walk-out terms and included 45,457 Murrumbidgee Irrigation Delivery Entitlements and the 2023 crop.

“We wish the purchasers every success in the future. They have secured one of the largest cropping properties in the region and we look forward to watching Ballandry enter its

next chapter under this new stewardship,” Ms Harvey said in a statement.

Mr Bartter listed Ballandry Station for sale in June this year, his third attempt at selling the aggregation after previously public listings in 2018 and 2021.

“We have recently been approached with very good offers and see this new sale campaign as the last offer of my lifetime of work building the Ballandry Station aggregation of farms,” he said in June this year.

Ballandry Station has primarily cropped a mix of wheat, barley, canola, lupins, field peas and vetch in recent seasons.

Comprising 16 farms and 26,839ha, Ballandry Station was aggregated by Mr Bartter during four decades as he routinely acquired neighbouring blocks.

In recent seasons the station has grown wheat, barley, canola and legume crops such as lupins and vetch across 21,833ha.

Excel Farms acquisition of Ballandry Station is their second major rural property play this year after they paid more than $100 million for the 8554ha Cherylton Farms, located near Kojonup in Western Australia’s Great Southern Region.

It adds to their existing cropping and sheep portfolio in South Australia and Western Victoria, which includes Kulwin Park at Towaninny South, Wirrinourt at Mininera and Karrara near Ecklin South.

Fiera Comox owns more than 2.02 million hectares of farmland globally, including in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and according to its website has a strategy to build “a diversified global portfolio of assets … generating stable, attractive returns over the long-term for investors”.

The Paterson family is one of Victoria’s biggest farming families, launching their Excel Farms partnership with Fiera Comox in 2020.