Midway Ltd lists for forestry property Kerrisdale at Strath Creek for sale

A forestry farm has been listed for sale with a multimillion-dollar asking price. See the farm, its prominent owner and the type of buyer who might snap it up.

Forestry business Kerrisdale owned by Midway has been listed for sale for more than $3 million.

AUSTRALIA’S largest woodfibre processor and exporter has listed one of its forestry properties for sale.

Midway Ltd, an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company, has put its Kerrisdale property at Strath Creek on the market with an asking price of more than $3 million.

The 785ha property was purchased by the company in 1995 after being in the hands of the Smorgan family.

Midway Ltd general manager of plantations Glen Samsa told The Weekly Times Kerrisdale had been planted to pine trees in the past and more recently to hard woods.

“The new owners could go a number of ways including continuing to grow hard woods,” Mr Samsa said.

“We feel it could be better suited to pines so to there is also the option to establish a pine plantation.

“If the new owners chose to do that, they have the ability to access carbon credits, as well as take advantage of local and export markets for soft woods.”

But there is a third, non-forestry option which could be to return the property to grazing.

Mr Samsa said the practise of reversion (back to grazing from forestry) was now well established and thousands of hectares of plantations had been brought back into agriculture across western Victoria and Western Australia.

“Parties will approach this property in a number of ways and will work back the value from the proposed land use,” he said.

There was the possibility of gradually converting the land back from forestry to agriculture but earning an income from the trees at the same time. Negotiations with Midway Ltd could see them buy some of the harvest of those trees.

Features of Kerrisdale include a reliable rainfall of 678mm a year, and a balance of soil types.

The country is described as gently undulating to steeper hill country, with some areas of native bush.

Given the nature of its management over the past few decades as a plantation, there are 40km of roads throughout the property including 15km of all-weather.

Kerrisdale is 20km east of Broadford, 26km west of Yea and 106km north of the Melbourne CBD.

Kerrisdale is being offered through expressions of interest closing on October 29.

Meanwhile, cropping properties went under the hammer last week including Denley Park West at Broken Creek which sold for $1.6 million.

The 130ha property, which was purchased by Richard Denley Davis more than 150 years ago and sold by his great-granddaughter Lyn Tanner, was sold via AuctionsPlus to an undisclosed buyer.

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