Paraway Pastoral sell Burmah Aggregation to Gunn Agri Partners’ Wilga Farming

Macquarie Agriculture’s Paraway Pastoral has sold the first of three properties it listed for sale with a combined $180m price tag earlier this year. See the details.

Gunn Agri Partners, via the joint venture between the Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Canadian pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has purchased the 5437ha Burmah Aggregation, at Graman.

Macquarie Agriculture’s Paraway Pastoral Company has offloaded a 5437ha northern NSW station, selling the first of three properties it listed for sale with a $180 million price tag earlier this year.

The Burmah Aggregation, a broadacre cattle breeding, finishing and cropping property located 30km northeast of Warialda at Graman, has been sold in a recently finalised deal with agricultural investment and land management company, Gunn Agri Partners.

Paraway Pastoral, a flagship part of Macquarie Agriculture’s $3 billion Australian asset portfolio, listed Burmah Aggregation for sale in May this year where it was expected to field offers worth $50 million.

The value of the transaction remains undisclosed with settlement pending following FIRB approval.

It is understood GunnAgri Partners have acquired the property as part of their $200 million “sustainable agricultural platform” known as Wilga Farming.

Wilga Farming is a joint venture between the Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the $400 billion Canadian pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Primarily used for grazing under Paraway Pastoral’s ownership, the Burmah Aggregation will be converted to predominantly cropping. Picture: Supplied

Paraway Pastoral’s 14,326ha Borambil Station and 23,905ha Pier Pier Station aggregation were also listed for sale earlier this year after they received “a number of unsolicited offers to purchase in the past 12 months”.

Both stations remain on the market.

Earlier this year the CEFC and CDPQ paid $11.3 million to acquire the 1237ha The Glen property, located near Inverell and 50km south of the Burmah Aggregation.

Purchased by Paraway Pastoral in 2015-16, it has run the Burmah Aggregation primarily as a mixed livestock property, with a carrying capacity of 40,000 DSE, and about 2770ha developed for dryland cropping.

However, under Gunn Agri Partners management, it is understood cropping will significantly increase to about 4000ha while pasture will be reduced to 1150ha.

Meanwhile in central NSW the CEFC-CDPQ has reportedly snapped up the 8500ha Nortongong aggregation, comprising three lots near Coonamble and three lots north of Dubbo.

The 2471ha Collie Cropping aggregation was listed for sale by Ian Walker and family, meanwhile Rodney Walker has sold his combined 6321ha located at Coonamble.

When the Wilga Farming partnership was announced, its mandate was to “fast track the uptake of low emissions technologies, carbon sequestration on agricultural land” with financial returns from livestock and crops.

Established in 2013 by Bill Gunn, son of late pastoralist Sir William Gunn, Gunn Agri Partners owns more than a million hectares of Australian farmland and has more than $650 million of assets under management. It also owns the Cunningham Cattle Company.

CEFC and CDPQ also acquired a minority stake in Gunn Agri Partners earlier this year.