Foreign owner sells four Queensland cropping farms

An Asian textile tycoon has sold a 2896ha aggregation of blue ribbon irrigation farms in the heart of the famed Darling Downs.

The 2896ha Janerin Aggregation has been sold by Hong Kong-based Alexander Woo to a private family office via Growth Farms.

An Asian textiles tycoon has offloaded his blue ribbon four-farm cropping enterprise located in the heart of Queensland’s southern irrigation district.

Hong Kong-based Alexander Woo, regarded as a prominent leader of the textile industry, has sold the 2896ha Janerin Aggregation, located 13km from Brookstead in the Darling Downs region.

Owned by Mr Woo, via Janerin Pty Ltd, for the past 30 years the aggregation comprises four freehold irrigation properties; Melrose (548.41ha), (Cabarita 812.74ha), (Dunbar 854.32ha) and (Willowtree 680.94ha).

The enterprise is heavily supported by 7324ML supplemented, unsupplemented and groundwater entitlements plus water harvesting and 4430ML water storages.

Mr Woo is the owner of the cotton spinning and denim making company Central Textiles.

Australian agricultural asset and portfolio manager Growth Farms confirmed it had acquired the Janerin Aggregation on behalf of a private family office buyer.

It is understood the family office owns existing Australian agricultural assets in its portfolio, but the Janerin Aggregation purchase is its first into the Darling Downs region.

The value of the transaction remains undisclosed. When the Janerin Aggregation was listed for sale in April this year it was tipped to field offers worth about $80m.

Growth Farms, who acquires and manages prime Australian agricultural assets on behalf of private and institutional investors, also confirmed they would be managing the irrigated cropping enterprise under the new name of Melrose Farms.

“For our client, Melrose Farms will form part of a quality portfolio of farms, diversified by geography, commodity and water source,” Growth Farms said in a statement.

“Melrose Farms is an institutional grade asset, with excellent deep black self-mulching soils, water entitlements, storages and infrastructure.”

Across the aggregation, there are 2459ha developed for cultivation, including 2035ha for irrigation, growing mostly cotton and sorghum.

Winter cropping mostly consists of wheat, barley and chickpeas grown on deep black to dark brown, self-mulching clays.

Summer cropping included cotton and sorghum with winter cropping of wheat, barley and chickpeas.

The aggregation also has frontage to the Condamine River plus numerous homes and sheds, a modern grain-handling facility, and 4680t of grain storage.

Ray White Rural agents Bruce Douglas and Matt Cleary handled the sale of the Janerin Aggregation.

The significant sale of the irrigated cropping assets comes after the mammoth $340m sale of the Worral Creek Aggregation in southern Queensland by the Reardon family last year.

In September, Utah-based Farmland Reserve, backed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, purchased the 26,885ha portfolio of seven properties stretched between Talwood and Mungindi.