Historic Victorian farm, Greystones, sold to Chinese buyer for $80m

A Victorian philanthropist has sold her historic 4000ha property in a deal with a Chinese buyer worth a whopping $80 million.

The 148-year-old Greystones property has been sold after hitting the market in April.

A Chinese investment company has purchased its second landmark Victorian farm in three years after finalising a rural property transaction with a massive price tag.

The iconic 4033ha Greystones property, located near Ballan northwest of Melbourne, has been sold for the first time in 90 years, changing hands in a deal worth a reported $80 million.

Property records show Guangxi Quitian Investment Co Ltd placed a caveat on the 148-year-old property in June this year via its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, Autumn Estate Pty Ltd.

Guangxi Quitian Investment Co Ltd is understood to be an investment arm of Guangxi Investment Co Ltd, which is based in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi region in southern China.

Founded in 1988, Guangxi Investment Co Ltd is an investment, financing and state-owned assets management entity.

Guangxi Investment Co Ltd’s purchase of Greystones comes about three years after it paid about $60 million in August 2020 to acquire the 5071ha Yaloak Estate, also located near Ballan.

The 13-bedroom bluestone homestead stands tall at Greystones.

Businessman and polo benefactor Peter Yunghanns owned Yaloak Estate prior to the sale, running it as a mixed-farming enterprise for dryland cropping and grazing sheep, while also generating income from 14 wind turbines.

Greystones and Yaloak Estate are about 20km apart, with the former located at 565 Glenmore Rd, Rowsley.

Greystones title records also show Diana Gibson, the granddaughter of prominent businessman Sir William Charles Angliss, owned the property prior to its recent sale.

Ms Gibson is a philanthropist and chair of the William Angliss Charitable Fund and is the ex-wife of the late former Liberal MP and lawyer Adrian Gibson.

The centrepiece of Greystones is the 13-bedroom bluestone homestead, which is almost 150 years old and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Alongside the iconic homestead, the farmland has run an extensive cropping and a superfine Merino wool enterprise, joining 6000 ewes in some years.

Still largely intact at 4033ha, Greystones is one of the few remaining pastoral runs in Victoria that were developed throughout the 19th and 20th century. Picture: Chloe Smith

Greystones was carved out of the Glenmore run, which was established by squatters Charles Griffith and James Moore in 1840.

Moore sold his interest to Molesworth Greene, with Mr Griffith and Mr Greene granted pre-emptive right for Glenmore in September 1852.

Then in the 1870s, Greene subdivided Greystones from the larger Glenmore and in 1876 he commissioned architects Lloyd Tayler and Frederick Wyatt to design the mighty bluestone residence.

Butcher and businessman, Sir William Charles Angliss purchased the property in 1934 and rejoined the property with part of Glenmore, and then pioneered frozen meat export in Victoria.

Greystones was listed for sale in April this year, via Colliers International Agribusiness agents James Beer and Thomas Quinn. They did not comment on the sale due to confidentiality arrangements.