Harris family sell Benmara Station for $40 million to Wealthcheck

A 451,200ha NT cattle station has fetched $28 million more than what an Australian family paid for it seven years ago.

One of Australia’s largest farming families has offloaded their the 451,200ha Northern Territory cattle station in a deal worth $28 million more than what they paid for it seven years ago.

The Harris family via Cleveland Agriculture have sold the Benmara Station for $40 million bare in an off-market deal with Sydney-based investment fund Wealthcheck.

Located on the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tableland, Benmara Station features open Barkly Downs and open forest country and can carry 20,000 head of cattle.

It is understood the Harris family sold Benmara to fund their recent $107 million purchase of Gina Rinehart and S.Kidman and Co’s 457,200ha Brunchilly Station.

LAWD senior director Danny Thomas handled the sale off-market.

Brunchilly Station neighbours the Harris family’s Rockhampton Downs, forming a million hectare breeding aggregation.

With the Benmara sale, the Harris family turned a $28 million capital gain in just seven years, after purchasing the station bare for $12 million in 2016 from the Holt family, who had owned the property since 1995.

Benmara Station can carry 20,000 head of cattle.

Malcolm Harris, via Cleveland Agriculture, has now amassed 2.9 million hectares of farming and pastoral land worth upwards of $1.2 billion.

From their beginnings near Mungindi in northern NSW, Cleveland has notably purchased the 852,000-hectare Nockatunga Station in southwest Queensland and the 245,000-hectare Ucharonidge Station in the Northern Territory from Consolidated Pastoral Company.

The acquisition of Benmara Station is the second major purchase by Wealthcheck, led by fund manger Sam Mitchell, after it was involved in the $175 million deal for the 660,000ha Limbunya and Maryfield stations aggregation last year.

Wealthcheck acquired the farmland, while Brisbane-based AAM Investments bought 50,000 head of cattle and will operate the farms via a lease arrangement with Wealthcheck.

Wealthcheck was also the reported buyer of Brett Blundy’s one million hectare Walhallow Aggregation for a record $250m before the deal fell over.