Standout farms hit the market as autumn selling season kicks off
The autumn property market is here and farms big and small have been listed for sale – including the home of a multiple group one horse winner. See the latest properties and their asking prices.
THE rural property market’s autumn selling season is here.
Lifestyle properties for horse lovers and large mixed farming enterprises are just some of the latest to be listed for sale.
Among these is Hyland Estate at Yarram – where the four-time Group One winning gelding Hey Doc was bred.
The property has an asking price of more than $1.8 million and will be sold under the hammer later this month.
It comes as a dairy farm in North East Victoria last week sold for $4.9 million – equating to more than $37,000 a hectare, or $15,000 an acre.
The 132ha property, Pehuen Park at Tallangatta South, sold under the hammer and smashed price expectations by almost $1 million.
See some of the latest listings below.
YARRAM
HYLAND ESTATE
Property: lifestyle, equine, mixed farming
Size: 39ha
Sale: online auction, March 26 at 2pm
Price: bidding to start around $1.8 million
Agent: Ray White Rural Victoria
Contact: Jason Hellyer, 0403 043 571, or Wayne Lynch, 0400 446 795
FOUR-time Group One winning gelding Hey Doc isn’t the only one to have called Gippsland’s Hyland Estate home.
A host of other horses have been stabled there over the past 15 years under the care of owners Adrian and Christie Hall, from agisted animals to Thoroughbreds Adrian has reared himself.
Located 5km from Yarram, Hyland Estate is a rectangular-shaped property enjoying an easterly outlook across the Tarra Valley towards the distant Strzelecki Ranges.
Consisting of seven gently undulating paddocks and untouched bushland, the land is well set up for stock and equine movement via a central laneway.
When Adrian and Christie bought the property it carried few improvements, but the intention always was to build up an equine facility.
“My father trained horses and I’ve been around them all my life, so despite the fact that I run a cabinet-making business and Christie’s a florist, my hobby has always been horses,” Adrian said.
“We built the second home first, then the horse facilities and our own house over a period of around four years.
“I’ve got my own horses there and we agist others as well as breeding Thoroughbreds – I bred and reared Hey Doc there and he was the best horse to come off the place.”
The rendered-brick home includes four bedrooms, two bathrooms, powder room, office, kitchen with stone benchtops and stainless steel appliances, split-level open-plan living, large laundry and garage.
Eye-catching features include an entrance of river stone and slate, a deck protected from the weather by motorised louvres and outdoor alfresco area with built-in barbecues, wood-fired pizza oven and fire pit.
The main home is surrounded by low-maintenance gardens watered from the property’s central dam.
The second home is solid stone, incorporating three bedrooms, two bathrooms, open-plan family room, kitchen, laundry, garage and separate undercover alfresco area.
There are three dams, but the largest, at 23Ml, supplies networked troughs and gardens across the property. Both homes have generous rainwater storage, while two other tanks at the shed are kept permanently full for emergency use.
“It’s very well protected country, with a lot of tree cover and windbreaks, including 30 acres of private bushland,” Adrian said.
Pastures are rye and clover-based and the property consistently produces around 270 bales of hay a season while carrying averages of 14 to 16 mares and foals and 40 cows and calves.
Other infrastructure includes six day yards, round yard, vet crush, cattle yards and a six-bay implement shed incorporating a tack room.
MOUNTAIN VIEW
MOUNTAIN VIEW FARM
PROPERTY: dairy/chicken/grazing/cropping
SIZE: 102ha
SALE: expressions of interest close March 31
PRICE: More than $4.5 million
AGENT: Colliers
CONTACT: Duncan McCulloch, 0416 047 484
THE diversification on one Gippsland farm has created a multi-pronged business in an idyllic location.
And Peter and Alison Drew credit their management of their Mountain View-district farm down to their backgrounds pre-farming.
“Both Peter and I had high pressure jobs and wanted to go farming to offer a better lifestyle for our young family,” Alison said.
“We had no farming background, but Peter had always wanted to farm so 20 years ago, we bought this property.”
They embraced the dairying farming life, even the twice-daily milking, but decided to expand the enterprise mix into growing broiler chickens.
“We were tied to the farm seven days a week and need to be there, so it made sense to diversify.”
They built three modern broiler sheds with a total capacity of 165,000 birds but ever the thinkers, have now obtained a Medical Cannabis Licence, which allows for the cultivation of cannabis on the property to provide an alternative use for the sheds should the new owners choose to.
“We are happy to chat with the new owners if they wanted to pursue this and share our intellectual property around the system,” Alison said.
Mountain View farm is currently operated as a grazing enterprise running dairy cows and a herd of Angus cattle.
The farm is subdivided into paddocks with a central laneway system accessing all paddocks. Stock water is supplied from a large catchment dam which is pumped to a high point and then gravity fed to troughs in most paddocks.
Improvements include the main house which was renovated about 20 years ago and has three bedrooms and a renovated three-bedroom manager’s house.
There is a 32-unit rotary dairy which is about 20 years old and has automatic cup removers, a 5550-litre milk vat, a 58-tonne grain silo and an additional smaller silo. The cow yard can hold about 290 cows.
The three broilers sheds wire built in 2009 and 2012 and have a clay floor, metal frame, are insulated and have tunnel ventilation. They also have gas heating and evaporative cooling.
Mountain View farm is 24km from Korumburra, 27km from Warragul and 95km from Melbourne.
BAYLES
31 FINCKS ROAD
PROPERTY: Lifestyle
SIZE: 17ha
SALE: For private sale
PRICE: $1.25 million
AGENT: Nutrien Harcourts
CONTACT: Ray Cullen, 0429 977 313
IT’S only a short stroll from one lifestyle property to the post office and local store at Bayles.
Yet the privacy of the lifestyle property despite its proximity to a small town and even the bigger centre of Pakenham is what sets it apart.
Selling agent Ray Cullen from Nutrient Harcourts said the property on Fincks Road, Bayles, was about five minutes-drive to the shops at Koo Wee Rup, and about 15 minutes from Pakenham.
“It really is conveniently located, but there is an area of land that allows you to do something with it,” Mr Cullen said.
“The current owners have run cattle, but I see real potential for other things including horse and it would make a really nice equine property.”
The owners have been on the lifestyle farm for about 40 years and have thrown their efforts into establishing an extensive garden.
Along with ornamental plants, there is a range of fruit trees, as well as a large vegetable garden and even an orchard igloo where the couple has grown raspberries and blueberries.
Mr Cullen said a feature of the property was its supply of water, with stock and domestic water sourced from a nearby drain which filled a dam. This was then piped to troughs as well as used on the garden.
The property has a three-bedroom brick veneer and cedar house with vaulted ceilings and wide verandas set in a pretty garden.
There is also an 8m by 8m lock up shed and a hay shed with two stables.
While the property is on a gravel road, Mr Cullen said there was only 300m to travel before reaching bitumen, and it should not deter buyers.
“It’s a very private spot on a nice bit of land which will lend itself to many options, including livestock or horses, and it could be a place of residence or even a weekend retreat,” he said.
“It has a generous vegetable garden that grows a bit of everything and has good soil.”
MOOROODUC
CITIUS LODGE
PROPERTY: equine
SIZE: 8ha
SALE: for private sale
PRICE: $2.75-$2.9 million
AGENT: James Crowder Community Real Estate
CONTACT: Ben Crowder, 0407 557 758
HORSE lovers will be drawn to Citius Lodge for its equine facilities, but they aren’t the only ones interested in the Moorooduc lifestyle farm.
The chance to own eight hectares of land and the privacy that goes alongside that is also attracting those who have little interest in horses according to selling agent Ben Crowder from James Crowder Community Real Estate.
“It is a big parcel of land for its position and that creates inquiry,” Ben said.
“At the same time, the property is equestrian heaven for breeding and agistment.”
Citius Lodge has well established horse credentials.
The land has been divided into 37 paddocks, each of which boats post and rail fences synonymous with running horses. There are looses boxes, a floodlit arena, stables, a round yard, shedding and day yards.
The paddocks have access to mains water as well as a creek-fed dam, while there is a laneway system to access the paddocks.
“Certainly, there is the chance for someone who has equine interests to take advantage of the facilities, or to continue as the current owners have in offering agistment,” Ben said.
Yet the property could also lend itself to a lifestyle property.
There is a five-bedroom house which includes a self-contained apartment, a large open plan living and dining area with a fireplace and bay window with French doors leading to a covered alfresco deck.
The self-contained apartment has its own bedroom, en suite, living area, kitchenette and separate entrance.
A mezzanine living area and two bedrooms are upstairs, while the master bedroom is downstairs and has an ensuites and walk-in robe.
The house is set in established, mature gardens and feature a tree-lined driveway and an in-ground pool.
Ben said other improvements included an extensive security camera system and electric entrance gates.
Citius Lodge is 45 minutes from the city using the Peninsula Link and is close to both Mt Eliza and Mornington.
GRETA
MINVALE
PROPERTY: grazing
SIZE: 97ha
SALE: auction March 12
PRICE: about $1.5 million
AGENT: Elders Real Estate
CONTACT: Mick Everard, 0408 653 161
THERE’S a chance that bushranger Ned Kelly could have been on one Greta-district property.
Minvale was thought to have been the site of the original Greta Police Station at the time when Ned Kelly lived in the region.
Over the years, the property has been used as a dairy farm before more recently as a beef operation run by the late George Hillas and his family.
The Hillas family bought the land in 1935 and has remained in family ownership since then.
Selling agent Mick Everard from Elders Real Estate at Wangaratta said the land was perfect, safe country for running cattle.
“It has been held by the one family for almost 90 years,” Mr Everard said.
“I expect interest in Minvale will come from neighbouring farms wanting to expand their local holdings.
“It will also appeal as an investment or development opportunity as the tree existing titles and ability to subdivide further into hobby scale holdings with the appropriate subdivisional approvals, can be considered.
“Or a buyer might retain Minvale intact as a productive and functional farm holding in a great district.”
Mr Everard said there was potential to increase the stocking rate on the property, with the use of a fertiliser regime.
“There is a fair bit of feed on Minvale at the moment, but the land is open to improvement,” he said.
Minvale is divided into six paddocks and has six dams.
Mr Everard said fencing was post and wire construction in fair to good condition with some of the fencing renewed in the past three years.
Improvements include a three-bedroom house, cattle yards, the old dairy, a hay shed and other farm shedding.
Minvale is 20 minutes from the major regional centre of Wangaratta and has frontages to two bitumen roads.
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