Crouch family sell King Island cattle station Reedy

A 1084ha cattle station located on King Island has been sold to a NSW family in an off-market deal worth millions. See the details.

1084ha cattle station, Reedy, located on King Island has been sold in a deal worth more than $22 million.

Premier Tasmanian farmland is continuing to hold its value as the nation’s most expensive, with a major King Island cattle farm sold via an off-market deal.

Reedy, a 1084ha livestock property located at Egg Lagoon on King Island, in the middle of the Bass Strait, has been sold in a recently settled deal worth about $22.66 million.

The family investment arm of billionaire businessman Peter Gunn, PGA Group, has sold the property, reportedly to the Crouch family, a wealthy NSW family with a 30,000 head Angus cattle herd.

Herron Todd White’s national agribusiness July report detailed the transaction, describing the buyer as “a New South Wales domiciled buyer with extensive existing holdings on the island”.

“Due to its sandier soil types, (the property) will complement their existing Angus cattle operation in wetter years,” Herron Todd White valuer David Robertson wrote in the report.

“This sale shows an overall ex-building rate of approximately $21,000 per hectare, which is in line with 2022 sales of similar country throughout the broader state of Tasmania.”

The Crouch family’s acquisition of Reedy adds to its existing portfolio on King Island, which was purchased in 2002.

The purchase also adds to the Crouches’ existing agricultural ventures primarily in the NSW Hunter Valley, including Waverley Station at Scone and property at Gunnedah.

Located halfway between Tasmania and Victoria, King Island has become a popular location for cattle production and other agricultural ventures.

The Gunn family, who forged their fortune from the transport and logistics company Cubico, have long standing ties to King Island and the Reedy property, with parts of the farm held in matriarch Rae Gunn’s (nee Cooper) family prior to Federation.

Home to just 1500 people but more than 110,00 cattle, Tasmania’s King Island produces more than a quarter of Tasmania’s total beef output and a third of its rock lobster exports alongside various dairy, sheep, horticulture and distillery ventures.

The deal comes after two previous major rural property sales in Tasmania this year, including the $30 million sale of the 784ha Rockthorpe Estate at Cressy and the McShane family’s $25 million sale of the historic Stonehenge sheep station.