A million acres in Channel Country for $40 million
A $40 million Queensland cattle run has hit the market, with the well-established McLoughlin family looking to exit Roxborough Downs and Mudgerebar Station in the Channel Country region.
In the north-west of the state, the two neighbouring stations run as one operation will be sold together by John and Kate McLoughlin as part of the family’s succession planning.
Combined, the two properties west of Boulia and south of Mt Isa sprawl over more than a million acres, some 423,494 hectares. Their carrying capacity is 16,000 head of cattle, although the two adjoining north-properties are being sold bare of cattle.
By next year bitumen roads will run along both sides of the combined holding, a key advantage in transporting cattle during rains.
The properties also get the advantage of beneficial flooding, as witnessed in the past two years when heavy storms and cyclones wiped out other parts of the state.
While set in north-west Queensland’s famed Channel Country, the properties traverse a range of land types, according to Colliers International’s Rawdon Briggs, who is handling the properties with colleague Bram Pollock.
“It is an impressive diversity of country types, not just channels,” he said. “When it’s really dry, channel can be challenging.
“Having the balance of gidyea, channels and Cloncurry buffel grass country makes for a well-rounded offering with good even production.”
The McLoughlins bought Roxborough Downs more than a decade ago from NAPCO, adding Mudgerebar station several years later.
Three years ago the McLoughlins sold Aroona Station, 100 kilometres west of Katherine, to Rich Lister Gina Rinehart, marking their exit from the Northern Territory.
The offering of Roxborough Downs and Mudgerebar Station comes in a good year for rural property, with prices expected to hold up better than in other areas of commercial real estate.
A string of high-profile Queensland cattle stations have already traded or been put into play this year, including the Crowther family’s acquisition of Leeora Downs in the Arcadia Valley north of Roma last month. The McLoughlins themselves had once held Leeora Downs.
Earlier this year in the state’s west, Listowel Downs was sold by a Danish pension fund for $12.6 million.
There’s more to come with the renowned Terrica Aggregation near Inglewood listed for sale. As well, Hewitt Cattle Australia, backed by Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, has listed its 87,000-hectare Mt Cooper grazing aggregation for about $25 million.
Meanwhile, another well-known grazier family, the McClymonts, are bowing out of Saxby Downs, a sprawling run in the state’s north-west.
