Rural Funds Management lists two Queensland gulf cattle stations

A 225,800ha aggregation owned by the ASX-listed fund has been listed for sale after eight years of ownership. See the details.

More than 320,000ha of North Queensland cattle country have hit the market with the listing of two significant pastoral properties in the region.

Rural Funds Management, manager of the ASX-listed Rural Funds Group, is marketing 225,800ha of cattle country in the state’s Gulf of Carpentaria region, eight years after it was acquired.

The specialist agricultural fund manager, with more than $2 billion in Australian farmland assets, is offering the 140,300ha Mutton Hole and 85,500ha Oakland Park properties, located 15km north of Normanton.

Offers more than $50 million are expected for the aggregation on a walk-in, walk-out basis.

Back in 2016 the properties, alongside the 17,500ha central Queensland cattle finishing property Rewan, were purchased by Rural Funds as their first foray into the Australian cattle industry.

During their tenure, Cattle JV Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rural Funds

Management, has bred cattle at Oakland Park and Mutton Hole, before transporting them to

Rewan for finishing.

The subsequent lease of Rewan to the ASX-listed Australian Agricultural Company for their own Wagyu cattle enterprise has removed the need to retain the breeding properties.

“The Gulf breeding properties were initially acquired as part of an integrated operation to supply weaners to a finishing property which has since been leased to another company,” Rural Funds Management chief operating officer Tim Sheridan said.

The ASX-listed Rural Funds are selling the 225,000ha Mutton Hole and Oakland Park aggregation, near Normanton QLD.

“As Cattle JV’s tenure nears completion, we’ve decided it is no longer strategically necessary to retain the breeding assets.

“This, coupled with the completion of our originally identified productivity improvements, has

led to an ideal opportunity for a walk-in walk-out transaction.”

Since that first foray cattle production has grown to become the largest component of the Rural Funds portfolio, by revenue, comprising 23 cattle properties made up of 18 breeding, backgrounding and finishing properties across a total of 717,434ha and five cattle feedlots with a combined capacity of 150,000 head.

In June last year, Rural Funds completed a significant transaction in partnership with the Caldwell family, for the 18,500ha Wyseby, a neighbouring property of Rewan, as a tenant-in-common arrangement (57.25 per cent ownership) for $37 million including transaction costs.

Rural Funds Group have owned the Mutton Hole and Oakland Park aggregation since 2016.

The 225,800ha Mutton Hole and Oakland Park aggregation is split into 25 paddocks, with a carrying capacity of 17,500 adult equivalents, comprising 11,500 adult equivalents at Mutton Hole and 6000 adult equivalents at Oakland Park.

Mutton Hole fronts the Norman and Carron Rivers and the Wills and Walker Creeks, while Oakland Park fronts the Carron River and Footes and Green Creeks, with more than 140 earth dams and numerous tanks and troughs across the properties.

Two carbon sequestration projects have also been conditionally approved by the Clean Energy Regulator at the properties.

LAWD agents Grant Veivers and Simon Cudmore and Queensland Rural agents Troy Trevor and Peter MacPherson are handling the sale of the aggregation.

Meanwhile, east of Mutton Hole and Oakland Park, Footy Prior and Leanne Condon’s Vanlee Station, spanning 96,609ha 75km northeast of Georgetown has been listed for sale for a third time.

More than 6320 Brahman cattle are also to be included in the sale along with progeny including 4000 breeders.

Vanlee Station is back on the market after Mr Prior and Ms Condon previously listed the property in 2015 and also in 2017.

Purchased by the pair as an undeveloped property in 2003, it is now estimated the station can carry 8500 breeders plus replacements or 9000 adult equivalents.