Mathieu family’s NSW farm, Checkers, sold to Australian farming interests

A tightly-held 3817ha farm has been sold for the first time in almost five decades, after it hit the market earlier this year with a price tag of about $30m.

After a 45-year tenure, the Mathieu family have sold the 3817ha Checkers farm, near Orange.

A NSW farming family has offloaded their 3817ha pastoral holding in a deal with another Australian farming family.

Frederic and Dominique Mathieu have sold their grazing property, Checkers, located at Baghdad Rd, Cargo, 45km from Orange in the NSW Central Tablelands

Checkers was listed for sale in February where it was expected to field offers worth about $30 million walk-in walk-out.

The buyer and the price of Checkers remain undisclosed but it understood the property was sold about its expected value in a walk-in walk-out deal to an Australian farming family with other agricultural interests in southern NSW.

The property is due to settle in the coming weeks.

Checkers comprises versatile grazing country featuring heavy red clay loam and black basalt soils.

Checkers has been operated as a wool and beef production platform conservatively carrying 3500 merino ewes, 2000 wethers, 3000 hoggets, 1600 first cross ewes with 350 breeding cows plus weaners.

The estimated carrying capacity is between 26,000 and 28,000 dry sheep equivalents.

Inglis Rural Property handled the sale with chief executive officer Sam Triggs describing the buyer interest as “diverse”.

“As anticipated, the buyer interest was strong with approximately 15 inspections from

approximately 65-70 inquires,” Mr Triggs said.

“We had competitive bids at the close of the EOI campaign showing good depth in the market for quality farms.

Alongside grazing ventures, Checkers has about 800ha of Box Gum grassy woodlands which could be potential biodiversity credits available to the landowners for trading (STA).

“We are seeing strong demand from institutional investors and family farming operators

seeking quality land.

“The sale of Checkers represented a great opportunity for an operator seeking scale and reliable rainfall in a popular region.

“The Mathieu family have been great stewards of the property and certainly made great improvements in planting trees, fencing, dams and pasture improvement.”

During their tenure the Mathieu family transitioned the property from a traditional

high-input commercial grazing enterprise to a regenerative low-input sustainable grazing platform.

Prior to the Mathieu family’s tenure, the Ashton family was the long-term owner of the tightly-held property.

Checkers also features an attractive 1930s four-bedroom handmade brick homestead with an additional self-contained one-bedroom flat.

The major sale comes after Macquarie’s Paraway Pastoral, one of Australia’s largest pastoral farming enterprises, this week listed three NSW farms for sale for about $180 million.