Queensland cattle farms fetch $110 million at auction

Local buyers have swooped on Ray Scott’s Queensland cattle empire with the sale of five tightly held properties at auction. See all the details.

A Queensland cattle empire has been carved up with five tightly held properties in Central Queensland sold at auction for about $110 million in total.

On Wednesday, the crowning jewel in the pastoral portfolio of late trucking icon Ray Scott, the Fairfield Aggregation, was offered for sale via auction in Rockhampton.

The seven-farm portfolio spans a combined 29,798 hectares, about 70km east of Rolleston, which attracted 24 registered bidders following more than 50 inspections during the sales campaign.

The largest property in the aggregation, Fairfield Station, which spans 10,522 hectares at Bauhinia in the Central Highlands, was sold under the hammer for $49 million to the Dennis family via Twin Hills Cattle Company.

Bidding for Fairfield Station started at $40 million before climbing to a sale price of $4657 a hectare following 34 bids in total.

The adjoining 2299-hectare Ellis Camp property was also sold at the auction to the Dennis family, who were the underbidders when the farm was passed initially passed in at $10.7 million. The sale price for Ellis Camp remains undisclosed after selling post-auction.

Bauhinia graziers Rob and Annie Donoghue paid $26.1 million to purchase the 3237-hectare Kurrajong Park under the hammer, paying $8063 a hectare as bidding rose from an opening of $16 million.

Five properties in the Ray Scott Pastoral Company have been sold under the hammer in Rockhampton.

The third property of the Ray Scott portfolio to be sold under the hammer was the 2423-hectare Wongaburra, which was bought by another nearby landholder, the Nobbs family via Yoman Brahmans, at Bauhinia.

The Nobbs family paid $12 million, or about $4593 a hectare for Wongaburra.

The 1911-hectare Hatari property was also sold at the auction, initially passed in at $12 million.

Hatari was sold post-auction to an undisclosed local cattle grazing family for an undisclosed sum.

Also offered for sale via auction was the 6880-hectare Carramar, which was passed in for $22.5 million, while the 2496ha Bauhinia Downs was passed in for $13.4 million. Negotiations are continuing on both properties.

Elders Real Estate agents Rob Murolo, Virgil Kenny and Mark Barber handled the sales of the five properties, offering the Fairfield Aggregation for sale via auction following “exceptional demand” since listing the portfolio earlier this year.

“Across the portfolio we saw strong interest especially from Central Queensland graziers who wanted to increase their portfolios,” Mr Murolo said.

The Fairfield Aggregation is developed to improved pastures of various buffel, panic varieties supported by Rhodes and bluegrass and under sown to legumes including desmanthus and butterfly pea.

“This is a tightly held area, the Scott family have been here for almost 50 years, so parties knew this was an important opportunity.”

The Mt Gambier-based Scott family listed the 107,503-hectare Queensland cattle empire for sale earlier this year following the passing of trucking icon Ray Scott in 2020.

The 59,517-hectare Carse O Gowrie at Ravenswood on the Burdekin River, 8907-hectare Echo Hills at Surat and 10,526-hectare Ingaby at St George on the Balonne River, are all for sale via expressions of interest through Elders.

The portfolio of properties was started by Allan Scott, before his son Ray set about expanding their pastoral holdings during the past two decades. In total the Ray Scott pastoral portfolio carried about 20,000 cattle.

Each of the farms in the Fairfield Aggregation are suited to breeding and fattening cattle or could be used for broadacre farming including grain, cereal and cotton production.