A couple of days ago (29th April) Great Southern Plantations Limited finally publicly listed cattle stations Wrotham Park, Chudleigh Park and Moola Bulla for sale. Moola Bulla is near Halls Creek, in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Chudleigh Park is located northwest of Hughenden, and Wrotham Park Station is near Chillagoe, west of Cairns (Queensland). (The Sydney Morning Herald described Chudleigh Park as being near Townsville; this is akin to describing Sydney as being near Albury. That inaccuracy typifies the general quality of rural journalism as reported by staff journalists in Australia’s largest city.)
One of these cattle stations was not mustered at all in the first year of Great Southern’s ownership. I hope land managers, not money managers, are the buyers. However given the ‘real estate’ prices of all agricultural land now, as distinct from ‘agricultural business value’ prices, it’s highly unlikely that anyone other than an investment company could afford any of these cattle stations. Unfortunately. So we can expect to see them sold again and again, every3 years or so, unless they have the good fortune to be bought by a land manager with a long-term view (10 years plus).
It is only occasionally that a cattle station is sold in a better condition, and with more good quality infrastructure, after only 3-4 years of ownership. At least Wrotham Park, Chudleigh Park and Moola Bulla weren’t planted with bluegum forests, unlike some good agricultural land owned by Great Southern Limited in southern Australia.
All three cattle stations were purchased in 2006. $28.5 million was paid for Chudleigh Park, around $30 million for Moola Bulla and $53.5 million for Wrotham Park. As is usual for large properties, stock & plant were included in the sale. It is expected that the 3 properties will fetch a total of more than $100 million – perhaps less than the purchase price of $112 million; however stock numbers included in this year’s sale may be a lot lower and/or of a lesser value, thus making true net profit/loss an imprecise calculation.
The sale is being handled by Ray White Rural (Queensland) and Elders (Queensland). All three cattle stations are to be auctioned in June.
Tags: Wrotham Park Station, Pastoral companies, Rural properties for sale and ownership, Chudleigh Park Station, Moola Bulla Station