Shenhua, Narwietooma, Sunland: 2022’s biggest Aussie farm sales

With standout results recorded across the country, who are the buyers and sellers behind Australia’s biggest deals so far in 2022?

Dozens of deals have captured the headlines as the Australian rural property market reaches dizzying heights so far in 2022.

2021 was an extraordinary year for farm sales in its own right, but in just a few months 2022 has witnessed many significant deals.

And with a suite of premier holdings on the market as autumn begins, expect several other major sales to be signed off in the months to come.

Recent major farm sales:

Ruby Plains, Sturt Creek, Innamincka Station, Macumba Station and Phoenix Park feedlot, WA, SA, NT (3.26 million ha)

$120 million- Shenhua Aggregation, Liverpool Plains, NSW (16,500ha)

Almost $100 million- Narwietooma, Glen Helen, Derwent and Napperby Stations, NT (1.1 million ha)

$80 million- Kalanga Cotton, Goondiwindi, QLD (12,840ha)

$45m-plus- Sunland Agriculture Aggregation, Hillston, NSW (1747ha)

$32m-plus- Balfour Downs, Pilbara, WA (634,000ha)

$30 million- Tuloona Pastoral, Harrow, VIC (2500ha)

$22m-plus- Paradise Creek Station, Inverell, NSW (2575ha)

Viv Oldfield. Picture: Chloe Erlich

Ruby Plains, Sturt Creek, Innamincka Station, Macumba Station and Phoenix Park feedlot, WA, NT, SA (3.26 million ha)

Earlier in 2022, two NT mates climbed to the top as Australia’s largest landholders after a mammoth deal.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart lost her place at the top of the list after selling 3.26 million ha of Australian cattle stations.

Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture and partly Chinese-backed S Kidman and Co businesses sold the Ruby Plains, Sturt Creek, Innamincka Station, Macumba Station and Phoenix Park feedlot to Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello, via their Crown Point Pastoral Company.

$120 million- Shenhua Aggregation, Liverpool Plains, NSW (16,500ha)

In January, a Chinese state-owned company, the Shenhua Group, offloaded a huge chunk of Australian farmland to locals in a massive deal worth about $120 million.

The 16,500ha Liverpool Plains aggregation was held in three main aggregations around Gunnedah, but was sold to 12 local farming families and an Australian agricultural investment manager in separate deals.

The Shenhua aggregation was listed for sale last July, just months after a multimillion-dollar deal with the NSW State Government to walk away from its $1 billion Watermark coalmining project.

Kalanga Cotton

$80 million- Kalanga Cotton, Goondiwindi, QLD (12,840ha)

In February an Australian family paid $80m to purchase the Kalanga Cotton aggregation from North American owners, the Hancock Agricultural Investment Group.

The Coulton family, via Morella Agriculture, from Boggabilla in NSW secured the farm in deal which expands their massive existing holdings.

The family held 809,371ha spread from Thargomindah to Goondiwindi, Bungunya and Toobeah in Queensland as well as from Boggabilla to Ebor in northern NSW, prior to the deal.

Sunland Agriculture Aggregation

$45m-plus- Sunland Agriculture Aggregation, Hillston, NSW (1747ha)

Last month the chairman of Namoi Cotton – Australia’s biggest cotton processing company, sold the Sunland Agriculture Aggregation in a deal worth more than $45m.

The 1747ha Hillston farm was purchased by MERS Global Investments LLC, via their company MRA Merrowie Pty Ltd.