Craig family of Adelaide sell Tuloona Pastoral to local buyer

A local buyer has snapped up a prized 2500-hectare holding in western Victoria as Australia’s rural property market continues to soar.

More than 2000 hectares of blue-ribbon farmland in western Victoria is awaiting settlement after a local buyer won the race to claim the sale of a prized farm.

Tuloona Pastoral, near Harrow, in Victoria’s west, hit the market in May 2021, with an expected price tag of about $30 million attached to the 2500ha property.

The Weekly Times can confirm a sale for the livestock and cropping farm is being completed for an undisclosed sum to an undisclosed local buyer.

Tuloona Pastoral’s selling agent, LMB Linke Pty Ltd’s Graeme Linke said the property received plenty of interest during its time on the market.

He confirmed Tuloona Pastoral will be sold as a single holding, with a pending settlement due in the coming weeks. The Weekly Times understands the sale price was in the vicinity of $30 million.

Mr Linke said the rural property market was “buoyant”, with most of the buyer interest for Tuloona Pastoral coming from domestic sources.

The sale means previous owners, the Craig family of Adelaide, will relinquish their control of the site, for which the Craig family has managed the land for around 40 years.

Tuloona Pastoral farm managers Michael and Jane Craig.

The Tuloona holding has been carved off the original 4200ha property purchased by the Adelaide-based Craig family in 1985.

Michael Craig has run the property for the last 20 years, with the mixed farmland home to the production of sheep for fine wool and prime lambs, as well as beef cattle, oilseeds and cereal cropping.

The farm was marketed with a carrying capacity at between 26,000 and 32,000 dry sheep equivalents, with 425ha of the land allocated for rotational cropping of canola, barley, wheat, lupins and clover.

Another major drawcard of the farm is its proximity to key infrastructure, including the Hamilton saleyards and processing facilities in Ararat, Warrnambool and Colac.

The multimillion dollar sale of the farm comes after the 3342ha Biraganbil farm, near Mudgee in NSW, was sold in an off-market deal for an undisclosed sum.