Crichton-Brown family sell Coolong Pastoral Portfolio to multiple buyers
Several buyers with existing Riverina pastoral interests have outbid corporate investors to secure a major slice of NSW farmland.
More than 50,000ha of Riverina pastoral farmland, owned by a late Australian agricultural investor are set to be sold among multiple separate Australian buyers with existing holdings in the region.
The sale of the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio, owned by Anthony (Ant) Crichton-Brown, is close to completion after the 51,280ha aggregation at Hay and Booligal was listed for sale in June this year.
Toronga (28,079ha), Natue Station and Merrimajeel (18,062ha) and Fairleigh (5139ha) comprise the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio and are set to have new owners.
The largest holding in the mammoth pastoral portfolio, Toronga, located at Thelangerin Rd, Hay, has been snapped up by an interstate pastoral family with existing holdings in the region and in other states.
The adjoining Natue Station and Merrimajeel farms have been sold to multiple local farming families.
Meanwhile, Fairleigh has been purchased in a stand-alone transaction with a separate local farming family.
When the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio was listed for sale earlier this year, the aggregation was expected to field offers of about $45 million combined based on district land values.
The value of the transactions remains undisclosed, but is understood to have been sold in line with district land values.
The disaggregation of the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio comes after a number of notable rural Australia properties have been carved up and sold between various buyers in the last 12 months.
Late last year Proterra Investment Partners sold its Corinella Group of almost 50 farms covering 22,500ha in Victoria and South Australia between 27 different Australian purchasers while the Shenhua Group sold $120 million worth of NSW farmland to 12 local farming families and an Australian agricultural investment manager.
Inglis Rural Property agents Sam Triggs and Liam Griffiths and Elders Real Estate agents Nick Myer, Angus Macleod and Matt Horne managed the sale process of the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio which saw significant interest from local pastoral farming enterprises and corporate investors.
The properties were offered by the family of the late Australian-born, UK-based Ant Crichton-Brown, who died in London last year aged 77.
Mr Crichton-Brown is the son of former Rothwells International chairman and Liberal Party of Australia treasurer Sir Robert Crichton-Brown.
He was also the executive chairman of Lumley Insurance Group from 1965 to 2003.
A long-time investor in Australian farmland, Mr Crichton-Brown acquired the Toronga Station near Hay in 2010 and Natue Station in 2016, forming the Coolong Pastoral Portfolio.
He also owned the showpiece 2722ha Deltroit Station near Adelong for more than 20 years before selling it to the Australian Pastoral Group in 2013 for about $15 million and formerly owned the 878ha Humula Station, east of Wagga Wagga.
With a carrying capacity of 5500 ewes plus followers and 450 Angus cows plus followers, Toronga is suited for sheep and cattle grazing.
About 100km north of Hay the adjoining Natue Station and Merrimajeel farms have a carrying capacity of 12,000 to 14,000 dry sheep equivalent or cattle equivalents.
Fairleigh is located 30km from Natue Station and has a carrying capacity of about 2500-2700 dry sheep equivalent.
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