Historic Gippsland dairy sold for the first time in 135 years

A billionaire horse racing tycoon has snapped up a 449ha dairy farm, owned by one family for five generations, in an off-market deal. See the details.

The Glasscock family have sold their 449ha Monomeith dairy after more than 135 years and five generations of ownership.

A historic South Gippsland dairy has changed hands for the first time in more than 135 years after it was recently snapped up in an off-market deal.

Longstanding dairy farmers, the Glasscock family, have sold their 449ha dairy farm located at Monomeith, southeast of Melbourne in the green wedge Cardinia Shire, ending a tenure spanning five generations.

The significant dairy farm is also home to the first district home, known as the Monomeith Homestead, built in circa 1860 and recognised by the Victorian Heritage Register.

The value of the transaction remains undisclosed due to confidentiality arrangements, however, Yulong Investments have been revealed as the buyer of the historic farming property.

Yulong Investments is a horse racing stud backed by Chinese mining billionaire Yuesheng Zhang.

While primarily focused on its thoroughbred racing and breeding operation, Yulong are planning to run beef at the Monomeith property, including wagyu production.

In April 2022, Yulong Investments paid a record $400,000 for a Wagyu heifer at the Australian wagyu Association auction, with the heifer Sunnyside S0014, to underpin their budding breeding program.

The Monomeith acquisition adds to its expanding Victorian rural property portfolio which include Yulong Park at Bayles, near Koo Wee Rup, which was purchased in 2018.

The 69ha property was Yulong’s first Australian farm purchase and is now the base for the company’s racehorse agistment.

Chris Waller, Yuesheng Zhang and James McDonald after Via Sistina (IRE) won the TAB Champions Stakes at Flemington in November 9 last year. Picture: Scott Barbour (Racing Photos via Getty Images)

In 2018 the company also started building its Goulburn Valley portfolio of farms near Nagambie, including the 182ha Yulong Stud property, formerly known as Limerick Lane.

Yulong also owns the now four-farm aggregation consisting of the 85ha Hillside, 109ha Riverview, 990ha Chatsworth Park and neighbouring 175ha rural estate, Islay Vale, acquired last year.

Located at Monomeith Rd, the former dairy farm comprised typical Monomeith-Caldermeade soil types described as grey-black gradational soil overlays, gradually merging into yellow-brown clays below.

The history of the Monomeith dairy property dates back to the partnership of Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall, who operated under the name of Westernport Stations in the 19th century.

In 1856, the land holdings were divided among the three partners, with John Mickle taking, among other blocks, the Monomeith parcel.

A year later John Mickle’s younger brother Alexander arrived from Scotland with his wife Agnes and they went to Yallock to manage the Yallock and Monomeith properties, building the Monomeith Homestead in 1860.

The property passed through the hands of several different families in the following decades before it was broken up into 18 farming blocks and 47 building blocks for the railway township of Monomeith.

The homestead was then acquired by James Murphy, who subsequently sold it to Herbert Thomas Glasscock. Five generations of the Glasscock family have held the property until its recent sale by the retiring John Glasscock and family.

Elders Real Estate Delaney Livestock and Property Bunyip agent Ray Cullen handled the sale of the Monomeith dairy property.