Rural property prices might have come off the boil in some states but it has still been another big year for farm sales across the nation.
Interest rates, commodity prices and the weather have all contributed to a fall in listings which has helped to keep demand strong.
From the biggest, the most expensive and what our property writers consider the most important, take a look back at another year of astonishing farm offers and sales.
Queensland
A subsidiary of the US-headquartered Mormon Church bought the major Border Rivers region property Worral Creek on a walk in, walk out basis for a figure understood to be well above $350 million.
The 26,855 hectare (66,360 acre) aggregation between Talwood and Mungindi was offered by Robert and Jennie Reardon and bought by Alkira Farms, a subsidiary of the Mormon Church-owned Farmland Reserve, and will be run by Solterra with the support of Australian asset manager Warakirri.
The seven properties have a combined 65,900 megalitres in water allocations supporting 7510ha (18,558 acres) of irrigation plus 6720ha (15,494 acres) of dryland farming.
The late Ray Scott’s 107,503ha (265,532 acre) Queensland cattle empire was offered to the market in May.
The Ray Scott Pastoral Company properties stretched from St George in the south to Charters Towers in the north.
The properties were acquired over several generations of the Scott family with Ray Scott significantly expanding the pastoral holdings during the past two decades.
Five of seven Ray Scott Portfolio properties in Central Queensland sold for a combined $110m on the Elders auction day in October, with later sales bringing the total to about $150m.
The purchase of the 352,500ha (871,046 acre) Lake Eyre Basin property Vergemont Station by the Queensland Government made headlines as the state’s largest environmental land acquisition.
Located south of Winton and west of Longreach, the $50m purchase price included a $21m contribution from The Nature Conservancy.
NSW
Premium 518ha (1280 acre) Namoi Valley irrigation farm Jungaburra sold at auction for a stunning $23.65 million in July.
Located on the Namoi River at Wee Waa, the property has 360ha (890 acres) of protected flood irrigation and 48ha (119 acres) of dryland cultivation.
Jungaburra holds 1888ML in river licences and a 408ML in groundwater licences.
Marketing agents James Thomas and Paul Thomas from Nutrien Harcourts said the premium irrigation property also featured outstanding soils, excellent water entitlements and first-class improvements.
Some of Australia’s most prized sheep stations were sold to US investors for $A780 million in September.
The famous Boonoke and Wanganella stations were among those listed for sale after the death of stockbroker Colin Bell.
The Australian Food and Agriculture Company held 18 properties in the Riverina and Central West NSW taking in 225,405ha (556,988 acres).
The properties carried more than 100,000 commercial and stud Merino sheep, plus 15,000 cattle.
The 1323ha (3269 acre) North West NSW grain growing property Mallanganee sold at auction in April for $15 million – equal to about $11,338/ha ($4589/acre).
Located in the Gurley district 35km south east of Moree and offered by the Estate of Doug Chick, the property has about 1065ha (2632 acres) of highly productive arable country.
Western Australia
Australia’s largest sheep station, Rawlinna, in outback WA was put up for sale by the MacLachlan family’s Jumbuck Pastoral, which founded the enormous station back in the 1960s.
Rich lister Twiggy Forrest was previously a suitor for the giant farm – a million hectares (2,585,520 acres) – but unexpectedly withdrew his interest in November.
It will be a walk-in walk-out sale offer including 35,000 sheep with the sales campaign being conducted by Elders Real Estate.
South Australia
Not the biggest but one which led to a lot of comment was the red hot sale of a single cropping paddock on the Yorke Peninsula in September.
The online auction of a single paddock near Maitland scored a record high price of $4.75 million, or $17,992 per acre, for the 107ha (264 acre) paddock.
The Maitland district is said to have the YP’s best cropping country and this paddock had the same easy working red/brown loamy Mallee soils with fine limes.
The paddock’s new owner will be looking for some bumper harvests to recoup their investment in the land.
A number of wineries and vineyards came onto the sales market during the year largely due to the crash in wine prices, blamed on Chinese import bans.
One of the South-East’s most iconic grazing properties was sold in September.
The Giles family’s Crower and Fellwood properties at Lucindale have an amazing history across a combined 1870ha (4621 acres) and were offered for sale back in February.
Crower and Fellwood are situated about 16km south-west of Lucindale.
Andrew and Tom Doman paid $7.5 million at auction for Wilkatana Station near the Flinders Ranges.
They added Wilkatana (44,696ha, 110,445 acres) to their already impressive portfolio of stations.
Wilkatana neighbours the Doman’s just under 100,000ha (247,105 acre) Yadlamalka Station, again to the north of Port Augusta.
They bought the 43,300ha (106,997 acre) Lake Torrens Station earlier in the year.
Andrew Doman bought Beltana Station (154,100ha, 380,789 acres) walk-in walk-out in 2017.
One of SA’s premier farm aggregations, Fairview at Naracoorte on 4360ha (10,775 acre) property has sold late in the year.
While the selling price was not disclosed, the buyer of the aggregation as a whole was a local beef grazier with already extensive landholdings in the region.
Victoria
The Coutts family at Boort sold their historic grazing/cropping property after 152 years of ownership.
The property, located 14km south-east of Boort, takes in 1102ha (2723) acres.
The on-site auction in October included the sale of the home block “Longview” on 528ha (1305 acres) for $3900/ac or more than $5.12 million – believed to be a district record. Other lots also sold strongly.
West Gippsland remained the state’s hotspot for rural property sales for another year.
Just one example was a farm block which sold, about 40km to the west at Yannathan, for $21,757 per acre.
A former dairy farm across 32ha (79 acres) sold for $1,650,000 in August or $20,886 per acre.
The region retained the title as the nation’s richest farming postcode.
The sale of a noted Western District dairy farm aggregation was completed late in the year.
Prices have also been released for properties within a second portfolio, priced at just over $30 million, which has been offered by the same farm company across the border at Frances in SA.
Described by agents as a “grass factory”, the Karrara Aggregation near Cobden was the second of the big Excel Farms’ properties offered to the market.
The farming group created the Karrara Aggregation between Cobden and Terang in 2021 with the purchase of the Karrara and Acacia Downs farms which collectively take in 967ha (2390 acres).
Tasmania
There’s still no result yet from the sale of one of Australia’s biggest dairy farm operations.
The owner of the Van Dairy Group has put the remaining properties of the renowned Woolnorth holding in north-west Tasmania on the market.
The sale includes Woolnorth’s remaining 9500ha (23,475 acres) of land plus the option to buy its vast dairy herd and machinery.
The company once milked more than 11,000 cows across 17,000ha as one of Australia’s biggest and oldest dairy operations producing more than 100 million litres of milk annually.
Northern Territory
A corporate farmer has unveiled a switch in strategy from “risky” grain plantings in NSW to hitch a ride on the NT’s cotton boom.
SA-based Duxton Farms has leveraged the sale of one of the largest broadacre farm aggregations in southern NSW to shift its focus north.
The ASX-listed company finalised the $70m sale of the enormous Timberscombe (8432 hectares, 20,836 acres) at West Wyalong in the Riverina to a Canadian pension fund manager.
The company spent $10.25 million buying 2386ha (5896 acres) of undeveloped cattle country in the Top End.
Duxton Farms said it was “shifting focus” away from broadacre farming in NSW into expansion opportunities in the NT and Victoria, including one of the largest pistachio developments in Australia (Piambie, Vic).
Meanwhile, a farm management company has plans to expand broadacre cropping with its purchase of a cattle station in the NT.
The investment group CropScale Australia has bought Tipperary group’s Douglas West property which takes in 42,300ha (104,526 acres) in the Daly region, about 200km south of Darwin.
No price was offered for the off-market buy from Melbourne barrister Allan Myers who still has Tipperary’s larger East, West and Litchfield properties across 343,701ha.
