Townsend family sell Gum Creek and Eriwah to Ives and Cattanach families

A 6100ha Riverina pastoral property has been snapped up by a two-family partnership who paid almost $10m at auction.

A tightly held Riverina pastoral holding, the 6103ha Eriwah and Gum Creek farms near Carrathool, have been sold under the hammer with a two-family partnership securing the properties.

Jim and Jane Ives and Mick and Stephanie Cattanach purchased the properties at auction on Monday with a top bid of $1581 a hectare ($640 an acre), totalling slightly more that $9.6 million.

Cameron and Therese Townsend sold the tightly-held properties which had been in the Boyd-Townsend family name for a combined 190 years.

The Ives and Cattanach families secured the farms ahead of seven other registered bidders in front of a crowd of about 60 people.

After purchasing the farms collectively, the aggregation will be split between the families with each family to take a holding.

Elders selling agents Matt Horne and Angus Macleod completed the sale.

Mr Horne said the outcome of the sale was reflective of the present demand for Riverina pastoral holdings.

“There was a period between 2018 and 2022 where there were little to no pastoral holdings available for sale,” he said.

“While there has been a number of station properties sold this year, the demand for quality breeding properties is still there. This was evident with the number of registrations we had at today’s auction.”

Gum Creek and Eriwah has been run with 4000 ewes and 140 cows plus followers in recent seasons.

Both the Cattanach and Ives families have been prominent Riverina farmers, developing major grain and cattle enterprises respectively.

Mick Cattanach along with Alan Winney and Mike Chaseling launched Emerald Grain in 2004, which was subsequently bought by Japanese commodity conglomerate Sumitomo Corporation in 2014.

Boutique Australian investment firm Roc Partners purchased Emerald Grain for an undisclosed sum in 2020.

Mr Cattanach was managing director with the company until he left in 2012 to pursue other interests.

Meanwhile the Ives family has been breeding cattle in the Riverina for almost 20 years, primarily running 450 breeders on their 10,000-hectare property, Glencoe, near Hay.

The Townsends had run the aggregation as one with 22 paddocks and a 3000-head sheep feedlot servicing 4000 ewes and 140 cows plus followers.

The Gum Creek and Eriwah aggregation sale joins a number of other major Riverina pastoral transactions completed this year.

The 43,334ha Glen Emu Station near Balranald was snapped up by Bill and Pip Ryan for $16.1 million while Ian and Camilla Shippen purchased the sprawling 9900ha Rhyola and Inverness aggregation, near Deniliquin for a similar figure.