Coulton family snaps up historic QLD station, Welltown

A family from northern NSW has secured a 168-year-old Queensland station, expanding their 800,000ha property portfolio.

Two years after purchasing one of Australia’s premier cotton holdings, the Coulton family, via Morella Ag, has acquired another expansive southern Queensland property.

The Cameron family has sold the historic 10,842ha Welltown Station, located 10km west of Toobeah and 68km west of Goondiwindi, ending three years of ownership.

Offered to the market in August last year, Welltown Station attracted both corporate and family farming interest after the Cameron family completed a major development program and expanded the cropping and grazing property during their tenure.

The station has expanded from 9540ha to more than 10,840ha when the neighbouring Eastwood farm was added to the holding in 2021.

The terms of the transaction remain undisclosed, but when the property was sold in 2020 – then smaller and less developed – by the Morris family, it fetched about $31 million.

The Cameron family owned Welltown Station for about three years.

Nutrien Harcourts Queensland selling agent Andrew Jakins handled the sale of Welltown Station, but declined to comment.

The Coulton family, led by David and Kim Coulton and their three sons, Andrew, Thomas and Sam, will add the property to their huge portfolio, which includes 809,371ha spread from Thargomindah to Goondiwindi, Bungunya and Toobeah in Queensland as well as from Boggabilla to Ebor in northern NSW.

In early 2022 the family paid about $80 million to secure the 12,840ha Kalanga cotton aggregation, buying it from the Boston-based Hancock Agricultural Investment Group.

David, Sam and Tom Coulton of Morella Agriculture at Boggabilla, NSW. Picture: Supplied.

The Boggabilla-based Coulton family is regarded as a pioneer of the cotton industry in southern Queensland’s MacIntyre Valley. Their largest landholding is the 720,000ha Nappa Merrie Station, near Thargomindah.

Welltown Station was offered with 8879ha of dryland farming, of which 5471ha are planted to winter crop and 3408ha are fallow available for summer planting, while there was 1963ha of grazing and supporting land.

The Cameron family had used the property to supplement its major piggery, Lundavra, using Welltown to grow sorghum and other grains.

The mixed farming station was established in 1856 and was once home to a Merino stud.