Northeast Victorian farms split between four buyers

The majority of a 650ha cattle and cropping portfolio has been carved up between multiple buyers and sold for millions, ending 120 years of ownership.

Four local buyers have each secured a slice of the 659ha Uralla Aggregation.

The majority of a 650ha aggregation of tightly held mixed farmland in a highly regarded pocket of northeastern Victoria has been split between multiple buyers, ending three generations and 120 years of ownership.

Most of the Uralla Aggregation, spanning 659ha at Lilliput, 12km south of Rutherglen, has been sold with four different buyers each securing a slice of the cattle and cropping portfolio.

The farmland was listed for sale for the estate of the late JN Baker, offering the Home Block (301ha), Gleesons (215ha), Johnsons (76ha), and Olcorns (67ha).

It is understood the aggregation has been split into five parcels, with four different local buyers each securing their own slice, adding to their existing agricultural enterprises.

Negotiations are ongoing with one of the buyers on what has become the fifth part of the aggregation, with the sale not yet finalised.

The Uralla Aggregation, at Lilliput, has been sold ending three generations and 120 years of ownership.

The Uralla Aggregation was listed for sale in February this year, with offers for the farms expected to range from $16,061 to $18,532 a hectare, or more than $10.4m as a whole.

Nutrien Harcourts Albury Rural agent Billy Jones handled the sale of the properties.

The Uralla Aggregation’s history dates back to when it was originally settled in the early 1900s by James Baker and his two brothers.

They grew cereals, raised sheep and pigs and planted grapevines, employing 27 workers, but later moved into beef cattle.

In recent seasons Uralla has been run as a breeding enterprise producing steers and heifers to feedlot weights with about 80ha of canola and 140ha of wheat cropped.

About 95 per cent of the total property is described as arable and comprises 21 titles and 25 paddocks.

The Uralla farms have produced steers and heifers to feedlot weights and cropping canola and wheat.

The largest parcel of the holding, Home Block, has nine titles and is subdivided into 12 main paddocks with 11 dams.

It includes the 1940s four-bedroom cottage in original condition, separate garage and water supplied by a concrete and brick well.

Working infrastructure comprises a lockup shed, two hay sheds, seven 40-tonne grain

silos, sheep yards, cattle yards with ramp and crush plus a three-stand shearing shed.

The aggregation also comprises scattered stands of native timber remaining along the creeks and on isolated outcrops, with soil types comprising brown sandy clay loam and red earths.

The properties feature frontage to Black Dog Creek and Rocky Waterholes Creek, with

seasonal creeks and springs.

The Uralla Aggregation sales come after 150 years of farming history in northern Victoria changed hands at a recent auction, with the 936ha, four-farm, Brown Aggregation sold for a combined value of more than $8m, with three trading under the hammer.