Smith family sell Beeac farm, McKenzie family purchase Bulgamarra station at Pooncarie

For the first time in 110 years a Colac farm has been sold, with a local buyer securing the property.

For the first time in more than a century a prime piece of Western District farmland will change hands, and will stay in local ownership.

John and Neville Smith have sold their 275ha Beeac farm, 21km from Colac, after a family farming partnership spanning 110 years.

A Colac district farming family bought the property as a whole for an undisclosed price.

The mixed farm hit the market earlier this year, offered as a whole with a price tag of $6.3m, or in four contingent lots.

The Beeac farm was previousl run as a dairy with a Shorthorn herd alongside sheep and pigs, before changing seven years ago to graze about 70 Angus breeders and 300 first-cross ewes for fat lambs.

Recently, the Smiths were leasing three paddocks for pasture hay production for a yield

this season of 2000 round bales.

It is understood the new owners will use the farm to stock cattle and potentially prime lamb.

Charles Stewart and Co Colac managing director Michael Stewart said interest for the farm came from many parts of Victoria.

The 275ha Beeac farm sold by the Smith family.

“We had a strong amount of interest from parts of Western Victoria, Melbourne, north of Melbourne, Geelong and the Colac district,” Mr Stewart said.

“Both the vendor and the purchaser secured a satisfactory result.

“It shows the current rural property market in the region is strong and resilient.”

Meanwhile, a local family has snapped up Bulgamarra station, a 31,430ha pastoral holding at Pooncarie in NSW’s Wentworth district.

Rowan and Jacqui McKenzie and their family from Beilpajah station at Darnick, 55km (linear) from Bulgamarra, purchased the property in a deal believed to be worth about $6m.

Bulgamarra has a carrying capacity of 5500 DSE across the property and it is understood the property fetched about $1050-1150 a DSE.

Rowan and Jacqui McKenzie purchased the Bulgamarra station, a 31,430ha pastoral holding at Pooncarie in the Wentworth district.

Vendors Herman Grimes and Matthew Glare have owned Bulgamarra station since mid-2016 and they offered the property for sale to concentrate on improving and adding to their existing property assets in the Western districts of Victoria.

Nutrien Harcourts Victoria real estate sales specialist Michael Fernandez said demand for the pastoral property was high.

“With very few pastoral breeding and grazing property assets located in the far north and lower Western Division of NSW being available to purchase over the past several years, the inquiry for Bulgamarra was quite significant with interest from over 50 individual parties,” he said.

Earlier this month a Buloke family snapped up a Swan Hill farm in a deal worth about $17m.