Greg and Craig Fox sell Swan Hill farm for $8.8m through auction

A renowned Swan Hill farming family’s cropping operation has gone under the hammer for around 20 per cent more than the reserve.

A cropping farm near Swan Hill has been sold under the hammer for millions with a local bidder coming out on top.

Vendors Greg and Craig Fox, of the Fox family, a renowned name in the northwest region of Victoria, sold their aggregation through an auction on Friday March 4 for almost $9m.

The 1145ha of cropping land near Goschen, which is made up of four lots, was sold as one to a local buyer who was looking to expand their own operation.

Nutrien Harcourts BRC Swan Hill auctioneer and selling agent Joe O’Reilly said there were three bidders vying to take ownership of the farms on the day.

In the end a neighbouring farmer was the winner, with a bid of $7684 per hectare across the four farms, with the price totalling $8.8m.

Mr O’Reilly said the selling price was at least 15-20 per cent higher than the reserve price.

He said during the marketing campaign there was significant interest in the farm with holdings of this size rarely on the market.

A bale of hay in a paddock northeast of Swan Hill.

“There hasn’t been a parcel of this size come up for nearly six years, since about 2016,” he said.

“Agriculture is obviously going through a bit of a boom at the moment and blocks of this size in this area don’t come up very often.

“During the last few weeks we held about 20 inspections on the property.

“We had three active bidders during the auction, including two local parties and one local agent bidding on behalf of someone else.”

The farm is entirely set for broadacre cropping, which was left out in 2021.

The farm aggregation includes Lot 1 – ‘Homeblock’ (404ha), Lot 2 – ‘Openlanders’ (207ha), Lot 3 – ‘Motts’ (259ha) and Lot 4 – ‘Taylors’ (259ha).

Last month a record price was paid in the West Wimmera as a cropping farm went under the hammer for more than $27,000ha.