Former AACo chairman Nick Burton-Taylor offers Bellevue and Nychum stations for $35m-plus

Former Australian Agricultural Company chairman Nick Burton-Taylor is selling two Queensland cattle stations — covering more than 210,000 hectares — for upwards of $35 million.

Bellevue Station and Nychum Station, on the Mitchell River near Chillagoe, about 300km northwest of Cairns, are being offered for sale by former Australian Agriculture Company chairman Nick Burton-Taylor. Picture: LAWD

A prominent Australian agribusiness identity is selling two Queensland cattle stations — covering almost a quarter of a million hectares — for tens of millions of dollars.

Bellevue Station and Nychum Station, on the Mitchell River near Chillagoe, about 300km northwest of Cairns, are being offered for sale by former Australian Agricultural Company chairman Nick Burton-Taylor.

Covering more than 210,000 hectares, the stations are expected to fetch more than $35 million and are being offered on a walk-in, walk-out basis.

Mr Burton-Taylor is well-known in agriculture circles. He is a former director of GrainCorp, Sydney Airport Corporation, Hazelton Airlines and the Meat Research Corporation, a former president and treasurer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and in 2008 was named Rabobank Agribusiness Leader of the Year. He is involved in running his family’s Hillgrove Pastoral Company and Kenny’s Creek Angus stud at Boorowa in southern NSW and is also a non-executive director of major farmland investor MH Premium Farms.

The sale is being handled by LAWD agents Col Medway and Danny Thomas, with expressions of interest closing on May 27.

Bellevue Station and Nychum Station, on the Mitchell River near Chillagoe, about 300km northwest of Cairns.

According to LAWD, Bellevue and Nychum are home to a large-scale breeding enterprise “that operates in harmony with the environment utilising sustainable grazing practices to enhance both economic and natural capital”.

It is rated at 15,000 adult cattle equivalents and is currently home to a Brahman-cross herd of 10,000 breeding cows. The stations are available on a walk-in, walk-out basis. Mr Medway said the stations, depending on cattle numbers, could fetch somewhere “in the mid $30 million-range, or higher”.

Mr Medway said the stations had been “conservatively managed over a stunning landscape, providing both compelling economies of scale as a calf factory, with a strong focus on environmental sustainability”.

Mr Burton-Taylor said during his time with AACo, which owns neighbouring property Wrotham Park, he became convinced of “the powerful breeding capacity and operational scale offered by the region”.

“Wrotham Park was an integral component of the AACo portfolio and the efficiencies it offered in providing young stock to other stations was strategically valuable,” he said.

“I saw the same opportunity with Bellevue Station and when we soon had the benefit of acquiring the neighbouring property known as Nychum, the full aggregation was complete.

“The other great attraction for me was the identification of a district that was likely to benefit from climate change. Bellevue, with its tropical climate exposure, fits this category.”

“Bellevue Station has given my family the opportunity to be involved in a region of great natural and cultural merit. It has been a great privilege to own it.”

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