Laguna Bay sells Banongill Station for about $80 million to local consortium

A farm in the Western District has sold for about $80 million. The same property was sold in 2006 for $20 million, showing just how hot rural property prices are. Full report here.

Banongill Station at Skipton has sold for about $80 million.

ONE of Victoria’s biggest farms has sold for about $80 million to a local consortium of farming families.

Laguna Bay Agricultural Fund today said it had sold the historic Banongill Station near Skipton in the Western District after four years of ownership.

The transaction includes 8200ha of prime mixed farming land, with 30,000 sheep and significant plant and equipment assets will be sold separately.

In a statement, Laguna Bay said the fund negotiated the sale directly with the buyer consortium, which is expected to settle post-harvest in the first quarter of 2021. It said no regulatory approvals are required.

In September 2016, The Weekly Times reported that Banongill, then owned by former VFL footballer and retirement village owner Stewart Gull and his wife Sue, had sold to Laguna Bay for what was believed to be $50 million.

Mr Gull purchased the station from the Lempriere family in 2006 for a rumoured $20 million.

The Banongill Station homestead was established in 1853, and was originally an outpost of Borriyalook Station, which was owned by pastoralist and philanthropist Francis Ormond, founder of Ormond College. Part of Borriyalook was separated from the home station in the 1850s and renamed Banongill.

Laguna Bay Founder and chief executive, Tim McGavin, said he was “delighted by the result”.

“This sale solidifies a significant return for our fund investors and reflects the resilience of the

agricultural sector in contrast to the crippling impacts we are seeing in other sectors of the

economy,” Mr McGavin said.

“We look forward to a smooth transition to the Australian buyer group and to continuing our

contribution to the local community through the retention of our 3,300ha Woorndoo

cropping enterprise, 50km from Banongill.”

Last year, Laguna Bay sold 12,000ha of almond plantations near Robinvale in northern Victoria and almost 90,000 megalitres of high-security water for $860 million in one of the biggest agricultural transactions in Australia’s history.

The water component of the deal was worth $490 million. The land and water was purchased by Canada’s PSP Investments.

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