Rural property: Chinese-owned Blackwood Station and Mount Falcon Station to return to Australian hands

Australian families have snapped up two prominent Chinese-owned properties in Victoria and southern NSW.

TWO prominent Chinese-owned farms are returning to Australian hands.

The 2420ha Blackwood Station property at Dunkeld and the 2887ha Mount Falcon Station near Tooma in NSW have been sold by Chinese-backed Rifa Salutary and Union Agriculture respectively.

The Weekly Times understands Blackwood Station was bought by barrister-to-the-stars Allan Myers’ Dunkeld Pastoral Company, with Mount Falcon purchased by an Australian family with local interests in the Upper Murray. While the selling prices have not been disclosed both properties came with multimillion-dollar tags.

Mount Falcon was passed in at auction in September after initially being marketed for about $13-$15 million.

Rifa purchased Blackwood in 2014 for a reported $14 million and was selling it as part of the company’s broader portfolio of 14 properties that was expected to fetch “north of $150 million”.

Hamilton-born and Dunkeld-raised, Mr Myers is one of the nation’s leading QCs and over the years has represented such corporate big wigs as Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, Gina Rinehart, Allan Bond, John Elliott and Kerry Stokes.

He is a long-term investor in Australian agriculture, buying his first block at Dunkeld in 1977.

Dunkeld Pastoral has since become one of the state’s best known, large-scale red meat producers operating across about 8300ha and producing 450 tonnes of lamb, 250 tonnes of mutton, 100 tonnes of wool and 100 tonnes of beef annually.

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The Weekly Times approached both Dunkeld Pastoral and Mr Myers for comment.

Inglis Rural Property sales manager Sam Triggs said buyer interest in Mount Falcon was “overwhelming”, with more than 60 inquiries coming from Queensland, Victoria and NSW and overseas and 23 inspections completed.

“The sale of the property demonstrated the strong demand and depth in the market for high rainfall and quality assets — rainfall is front of mind due to the dry conditions in eastern Australia,” Mr Triggs said.

“We have seen continued growth in land values this spring in the southeast and the Riverina regions of Aust­ralia, rallied by low interest rates, strong sheep and beef prices and investors seeking the high-rainfall, reliable, cashflow-positive working farms.”