More Western District farms sold to timber interests

Major blue gum plantation developers have swooped on two dairy farms totalling more than 320 hectares near Simpson. See the latest.

Five farms along a 15km stretch of road in Victoria’s Western District have changed hands in a series of deals worth about $16.5 million combined.

In the past year farms on Lavers Hill-Cobden Rd, between the towns of Simpson and Kennedys Creek, have become a hotspot for sales with more than 790ha traded as timber companies and a billionaire snapped up various holdings.

Property records show in October last year a 158ha dairy on Lavers Hill-Cobden Rd was sold for $3.41 million, or about $21,500 a hectare, to a subsidiary of Hancock Victorian Plantations Holdings Pty Ltd.

Hancock Victorian Plantations Holdings are one of the largest private plantation companies in Australia with 239,974ha across Gippsland, northern and western Victoria, of which 172,965ha are considered plantation.

In their western Victorian region, which stretches from west of Heywood to the Colac-Otways region, Hancock Victorian Plantations owns 47,224ha with 39,488ha as plantation.

Two dairy farms totalling more than 320 hectares near Simpson in the Western District have been sold to major blue gum plantation developers.

Meanwhile in November last year, a 168ha dairy also on Lavers Hill-Cobden Rd, was sold for about $3.3 million, or the equivalent of $19,722 a hectare.

Otway Silva Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of German insurance giant Munich Re, secured the property adding it to its growing portfolio of Victorian farmland.

Property records show two years earlier the same property was traded between two local dairy farming families for about $4.76 million, or more than more than $28,000 a hectare.

In recent years Munich Re, via forestry asset manager MEAG, has added more than 2000 hectares to its southwest Victorian holdings, after it bought 17,000ha of existing plantations in 2022 for $154 million from Midway.

The deal also involved $200 million for new plantations to be developed under Midway management.

In a 2023 report Munich RE’s said it was committed to investing in 10,000ha of new blue gum plantations, equivalent to an average price of $20,000 a hectare.

Earlier last year, three further farming properties on the same stretch of Lavers Hill-Cobden Rd caught the interest of Australia’s richest person.

Valley River Holdings Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, acquired a trio of farms at Kennedys Creek spanning a combined 467 hectares.

Property records show Valley River Holdings Pty Ltd paid $4,240,650 for a 201.83ha mixed farming and grazing holding with infrastructure, $3,398,860 for a 161.82ha livestock and dairy property, while also purchasing a further 103.5ha livestock grazing holding for $2,173,909.

The Hancock Prospecting subsidiary paid the equivalent of about $21,000 a hectare across each of the three properties.