Historic NSW farms Terlings and Dundenoon hit the market

A pair of northwestern NSW farms with a link to King Charles III, have hit the market for the first time in 120 years.

King Charles III once visited Terlings and Dundenoon in the early 1980s.

For the first time in more than 120 years a pair of northwestern NSW farms have hit the market, which could be worth more than $35 million as an aggregation.

The 1879ha Terlings and 1395ha Dundenoon, located on the Newell Highway, 48km from Moree, have hit the market after being held by the Hill family and descendants since the turn of the century.

Industry veteran Sinclair Hill owned the properties before his daughter Carina Shannon, and her husband Ed Shannon, acquired the assets through a combination of succession and purchase to run in conjunction with their farming assets in NSW’s Upper Hunter.

Mr Hill, regarded as one of Australia’s greatest ever polo players, hosted his friend King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, at Terlings in 1981.

The Shannon family are selling their northwestern NSW aggregation.

Tom Shannon, the grandson of Mr Hill said they had decided to sell the historic holdings after a number of unsolicited offers from both national and international parties in the past year.

“Over many years of family ownership, the enterprise has gone from predominantly fine wool to a serious bullock backgrounding operation to, in more recent times, the extensive development of Terlings for grain, cereal and legume production, particularly since my family acquired the property from my grandfather in 2019,” Mr Shannon said.

“The quality of the soil has spoken for itself with the first crop after converting from livestock yielding a six-tonne per hectare wheat crop in a year that was particularly challenging for a number of factors, including very high rainfall.”

Terlings and Dundenoon has been used for winter and summer cropping and grazing pursuits.

LAWD director Tim Corcoran and senior director Col Medway are handling the sale, with the farms offered in one line or two contiguous parcels by expressions of interest closing July 13.

“We anticipate strong interest from both institutional investors and expanding local farming enterprises given the scale of this opportunity and its location in a renowned cropping area,” Mr Corcoran said.

71 per cent of the aggregation is arable and accommodates a proven winter and summer cropping rotation comprising barley, wheat, canola, sorghum and chickpeas.

Historically, the vendors have run 150 cows across both parcels.

Preliminary studies conducted by the Biodiversity Conservation Trust also identified unique environmental habitats for koalas and endangered tree species at the aggregation. There have also been sightings of vulnerable species such as the Glossy Black Cockatoo, Painted Honey Eater and Five- clawed Worm-skink.

Earlier this month a renowned local farming family paid a premium price to secure 4784ha of mixed farmland at Garah, north of Moree, as the Carrigan family who have relinquished their 100-year tenure at Welbon.