Glen Emu Station sold to Riverina pastoralists Bill and Pip Ryan at auction

A 43,334ha western Riverina farm has been sold through auction to a renowned name with a neighbouring property for millions.

Major Riverina pastoralists Bill and Pip Ryan have secured the expansive 43,334ha Glen Emu Station near Balranald, paying more than $16 million at auction.

The Ryans secured the southern NSW farm with a winning bid of $371.88 a hectare ($150.50 an acre), totalling $16.115 million, in front of a bumper crowd of about 200 people at the Homebush Hotel in Balranald,

The farm was sold under the hammer in what is understood to be one of the most significant public sales in the district’s history, with farmland near Balranald traditionally tightly-held.

Prior to the sale,

Glen Emu Station was sold by the two-family partnership, Mark and Lee Newnham of Hay, and Robert and Andrew Hiscock from Kilmore, who had owned the farm for the past two decades.

Glen Emu Station comprises four adjoining properties totalling 43,334ha.

Elders agents Peter Robertson, Jason Telford and Matt Horne handled the sale.

Mr Robertson said the remarkable sale had given farmers in the district an understanding of pastoral land values near Balranald.

The acquisition of the Glen Emu Station is a significant expansion of the Ryans existing property portfolio, which also includes an adjoining property, Oakdean.

Based at their home farm of Curragh, 120km northwest of Hay, Bill and Pip run a self- replacing poll merino flock, which incorporates a ram breeding enterprise. They also run beef cattle in season.

It is understood they will use Glen Emu Station to continue breeding merinos and wool production.

Mr Ryan has been a prominent figure in western Riverina farming circles, serving as a director on the board of Western Local Land Services and as the president of the Booligal-Oxley Branch of the NSW Farmers Association.

The sale reached about expectations, after it was listed for sale in July with bids tipped to exceed $370 a hectare ($150 an acre) for a total of at least $16 million.

The station comprises four adjoining properties; Glen Emu (12,673ha), Ettrick (12,804ha), Llanover Downs (10,331ha) and Glen Dee (7525ha) and was sold as a whole.

Glen Emu Station has a Local Land Services notional carrying capacity of 18,000 dry sheep equivalent.

Earlier this week a premier 2085ha Balmoral farm was sold by a Riverina farming family for more than $25 million in one of the biggest Victorian farm sales of the year so far.

Further north, Australian wheat giant Ron Greentree has sold the remaining slice of his powerhouse cotton and cropping farm, the 2400ha Milton Downs East.

The farm, located near Bellata, was sold through auction on September 1 to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price.

When Milton Downs East was listed for sale in July, it has price expectations of around $23 million.

Earlier this year Mr Greentree sold the predominant 19,060ha slice of the Milton Downs holding to a local buyer earlier this year for an undisclosed price, but rumoured to be more than $100 million.