Top 20 biggest Australian farm sales for first quarter of 2020 revealed

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of rural property have transacted in this first quarter of 2020. Here we reveal all the details behind the the top 20 biggest sales.

Gilgal at Cootamundra.

HUNDREDS of millions of dollars worth of rural property have transacted so far this year, including high profile farms and aggregations.

Figures compiled by The Weekly Times show that in the first three months of 2020, cropping properties, mixed farming operations, cattle stations, historic pastoral holdings and homesteads have sold from $6 million to $97 million.

INFOGRAPHIC: THE 20 BEST PROPERTY SALES SO FAR THIS YEAR (PDF)

Topping the list was Erregulla Plains at Mingenew in Western Australia, which sold for $97 million at the beginning of February.

The 22,000ha cropping property sold to corporate investment business, Daybreak Cropping, which was formed in 2016 as a national broadacre cropping business managed by Warakirri Asset Management, in a joint venture with Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

The sale is thought to have been the biggest ever for WA.

Erregulla Plains

In mid-February, details surrounding the sale of Clark and Tait’s seven western Queensland properties emerged.

The sheep and cattle grazing company, founded by James Clark and Peter Tait 121 years ago, sold its Mantuan Downs farm for $92.6 million.

The 135,000ha Springsure property was sold to the North Australian Pastoral Company and included almost 12,000 cattle.

Combined the company’s properties are expected to fetch as much as $200 million.

At the top end of the country, two Northern Territory cattle stations, Tanumbirini and Forrest Hill near Daly Waters, sold for $70 million in early March, after they were listed for sale in early 2018.

The stations, which sprawl across almost 560,000ha, were sold on a walk-in walk-out basis with about 36,000 cattle by the UK based Thames Pastoral and were purchased by the Langenhoven family.

In mid-March, one of NSW’s oldest pastoral holdings, Dunns Plains, sold for $17.1 million.

The Central Tablelands property, near Bathhurst, was sold by ex-media baron John B. Fairfax and was purchased by McIntosh Pastoral Company.

Selling agent Sam Triggs, from Inglis Rural Property, said the price of lambs helped to underpin the sale.

Dunns Plains

Victoria’s historic Mawallok estate at Stockyard Hill, which has a 10-bedroom mansion, was also snapped up last month by the largest importer of Australian wool into China, Qingnan Wen.

Mr Wen, who owns Tianyu Wool in Jiangsu, purchased Mawallok for about $25 million.

Mawallok, Stockyard Hill

And just last week, the historic Chatsworth House near Mortlake sold on a walk-in walkout basis to Tom and Sarah Whinney for $25 million.

Ruralco Property’s Ben Pelizarri, who recently sold Queensland cattle station The Patrick for a reported $7.3 million, said the rural property market was showing no signs of slowing down.

CBRE’s Phil Schell said demand for rural properties had been “extraordinary”.

“There’s a lot of confidence in the season and the exchange rate,” he said.

Last year, some of the biggest rural property sales included $300 million paid for the 17,300ha Midkin aggregation at Moree in NSW, which was purchased by Australian Food and Fibre and $135 million, which was paid for three Consolidated Pastoral Company holdings.

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