Central Victorian farms make $10 million-plus through auction
A local farming family has paid more than $10m for a 590ha property that hit the market for the first time in more than a century.
A central Victorian farming family has snapped up almost 600ha of tightly held farmland through auction.
Bill and Pat Johnson have sold their 590ha Orana property, located 10km from Colbinabbin and 45km from Bendigo, with both the 235ha Home and 356ha Old Home parcels acquired by the one private local buyer.
It is understood the buyer is a major cropping farming family in central Victoria.
Home was initially passed in, but later sold for $11,485 a hectare, or $2.699m, while Old Home was sold under the hammer for $21,250 a hectare, or $7.565m.
Combined the two properties were sold for about $10.264m in total via auction at the Toolleen Reserve on Friday.
“This is the first time we have seen some farmland of this larger size for sale for some time, so it was a very strong result,” Nutrien Harcourts selling agent Alister Kemp said.
The Johnsons listed Orana for sale in August, marking the first time the property was on the market in more than a century.
“My grandfather bought the original piece of the farm and the acreage has grown over time since then,” Mr Johnson said when listing Orana for sale.
“He and my father did some cropping and ran sheep and cattle, but I’ve concentrated
on sheep with a mix of Merino and first-cross ewes to a peak of around 1200 head,
scaling back those numbers in the last couple of years.
“Because of seasonal conditions this year, we’ve downsized again to 400 Merino ewes with roughly the same number of first-cross.”
Home is subdivided into 12 main paddocks and includes nine surface dams and stock troughs, a balance of grey loam soils and areas of preserved native bushland.
Old Home is also split into 12 main paddocks, has six dams, a bore and six troughs, with its red Cambrian soils sown down to about 80ha of lucerne and the remainder under clover.
Meanwhile, in the southern NSW Riverina the 782ha Holyrood and Elmslea properties, located near Burrumbuttock, have failed to sell at auction.
Listed for sale in January last year by Gerard O’Brien, the aggregation of Holyrood (589ha) and Elmslea (274ha) were offered via auction on Friday at The Albury Club.
The properties were passed in at auction with negotiations ongoing for each parcel.
Elders Real Estate Albury and Nutrien Harcourts Albury are handling the sale of Holyrood and Elmslea.
