Historic Tasmanian farming property Cullenswood tipped to change hands for the first time in nearly 200 years
A sprawling Tasmanian farm built at the time of the state’s original land grants is on the market for the very first time, with price expectations of more than $12 million.
Cullenswood, just outside the town of St Marys in the Fingal Valley on the island’s east coast, has been owned by the Legge family for six generations.
The 2590-hectare property with heritage-listed buildings, at 6870 Esk Main Road, has been held by the family since it was established in about 1827.
Past residents have included Colonel William Vincent Legge, who was born at the property in 1841 and died there in 1918, and more recently the late Robert Legge, former mayor of Break O’Day Council.
The property is being sold as part of an expressions of interest campaign managed by Knight Frank.
Listing agent Mark Ranicar said the Legge family had decided to sell for “personal reasons” following the death of Mr Legge in 2018.
Along with the nine-bedroom homestead, the property includes several buildings, most notably a roadside church and cemetery built in about 1847.
A provision of the sale allows for the current owners to subdivide a five-hectare parcel of land that includes the church and rectory buildings and purchase them back from the new owner at a pre-determined price, within two years of the sale.
The homestead’s garden includes some of the tallest Canadian redwoods in the southern hemisphere, the marketing brochure says.
While the property has a rich history, it’s the water storage and irrigation potential that’s expected to generate much of the interest from buyers – along with the potential to further develop remnant timber plantations on the site.
Mr Ranicar suggested that the current 1000 megalitres of water storage on the farm could be expanded to more than 4500 megalitres, with the necessary planning approvals and infrastructure in place.
Stretching across four titles, the property includes about 1300 hectares of arable land, a six-stand wool shed and additional dwellings.
Mr Ranicar said there was potential to expand the current cattle and sheep grazing operation to include dairy and cropping.
The property has carried 400 breeding cows and 13,000 sheep in the past, although herd numbers are currently lower, owing to the drought.
Along with farming activities, income is being generated from an open-cut mine on the property, which opened in 2001.
Mr Ranicar said Cornwall Coal’s current mining agreement ended in 2019, and was now in a “holding over” phase, and that the new owner would need to negotiate a new agreement with the company, which is a subsidiary of Cement Australia.
The most recent agreement, in place since 2010, is generating average yearly income from royalties of about $100,000.
Early feedback from prospective buyers indicated a sale price “north of $12 million”, Mr Ranicar said.
There was already significant buyer interest, owing to a combination of commercial potential and its historical links to the area, he said.
“It goes back six generations, it was built in 1827. These properties don’t come along often, it’s a very rare occurrence,” Mr Ranicar said.
Cullenswood is for sale by expressions of interest closing March 6.
