Victorian farm sold for more than $90,000 a hectare

An 85ha grazing and lifestyle farm in the state’s Surf Coast region has been snapped up for a whopping price.

Freshwater Creek property Willowrite Springs has been sold for more than $90,000 a hectare.

A grazing and lifestyle farm, plus its five-bedroom homestead, in the state’s Surf Coast region has been sold in a deal worth more than a whopping $90,000 a hectare.

Willowrite Springs, an 85ha rural retreat at Freshwater Creek, 15 minutes from Torquay and 20 minutes from Geelong, has changed hands after hitting the market in spring last year.

The specific price of the transaction remains undisclosed but it is understood the property was sold within its expectations of $7.9-$8.4 million, or the equivalent of more than $92,000 a hectare.

A Melbourne-based family, with interests on the Surf Coast, purchased the property and have plans to run a cattle herd while also growing hay.

Acquired as a vacant six-paddock holding in 2007, vendors the Davison family set about constructing a five-bedroom, four-bathroom home, including an independent two-bedroom studio, as well as planting thousands of trees.

Willowrite Springs’ five-bedroom home was built by the Davison family during their 15-year tenure.

Charles Stewart Geelong and Hayden Real Estate agents Andrew Rice and Bryan Hayden handled the sale.

The property has traditionally run a 60-head beef cattle herd but is also suited to prime lamb, canola and hay production.

Agricultural production at Willowrite Springs is supported by six dams, while stock water is pumped to a 75,000-litre tank from two sources, including a large ground tank in the main tree plantation and the natural spring from which the property draws its name- then reticulated to 12 concrete troughs via underground poly piping.

Other infrastructure includes a multi-bay farm workshop with concrete floor and vehicle washing bay, steel cattle yards with water troughs, holding yards and a fully covered crush which has been successfully used in the past for artificial insemination and embryo transfer.

Last year farmland in the Surf Coast municipality was tightly held, recording just two transactions in the Rural Bank Australian Farmland Values report.

However, the report found the five-year compound annual growth rate for farmland in the shire was 28.3 per cent.

Earlier this month two Victorian farms and one in Tasmania also changed hands in three separate deals worth about $25 million combined.