NAB director Simon McKeon part of $120m swoop on trophy farms
Wealthy Australian families and high-powered business executives including NAB director Simon McKeon and renewable energy boss Andrew Doman have swooped on $120 million of trophy farms as confidence returns to the agricultural sector.
Leading the charge, Southern Pastoral Group – which is majority owned by Mr McKeon, alongside Melbourne-based investor Bill Craig – has acquired 1900-hectare wool aggregation Avington near Kyneton in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges for about $35 million. The sale included most of Avington’s 16,000 Merino sheep flock. Shane McIntyre and Matt Childs from CBRE brokered the sale.
Farming is just one of the many business pursuits of Mr McKeon, a former investment banker, who stepped down as chancellor of Monash University earlier this year. He is also a joint owner alongside Rich Lister Peter Gunn of the Arthurs Seat Eagle cable car on the Mornington Peninsula, which is set for a $25 million tourism attraction revamp.
Also bulking up on grazing land is UK-based Andrew Doman, founder and main investor of Yadlamalka Energy, which is developing a battery and solar project near Port Pirie.
Together, with his brother Tom, Mr Doman, a former senior director at McKinsey, paid $7.4 million via online auction for 44,696-hectare Wilkatana Station, near Port Augusta. The station had been held by successive generations of the Sawyer family for 123 years.
The property, which offers panoramic views of the Flinders Ranges, has a carrying capacity of around 5000 ewes and 150 cattle.
The Doman family will add Wilkatana Station to the neighbouring circa-100,000ha Yadlamalka Station (where their renewable energy project is based), and the 154,100ha Beltana Station, also in the Flinders Ranges. Ray White Rural’s Geoff Schell and Sam Krieg were the selling agents of Wilkatana Station.
In NSW, the Dubbo-based Sharwood Pastoral Company, headed by Eric Sharwood, paid more than $18 million for 2842 ha Mount Nombi, situated between Coonabarabran and Gunnedah on the Liverpool Plains. The property, which was part of the 4942ha Wyuna Aggregation, was sold by Silverstrand Capital, a Singapore-based family office founded by Kelvin Chiu, focused on regenerative agriculture.
Almost of half of Mount Nombi grows canola, wheat, barley and chickpeas as part of a dryland cropping program, with the remainder used for cattle and sheep breeding and finishing. LAWD’s Col Medway and George Barton handled the sale.
In the NSW Central West, the 8828ha Darriwell cropping and livestock aggregation, 50 kilometres from Parkes, was purchased by red meat processor Roger Fletcher and his family for more than $43 million. The Fletchers operate Fletcher International Exports, which processes and exports lamb and sheep meat products. Elders Chris Malone brokered the sale on behalf of the Jones family, which started Darriwell in 1958.
Rounding out the series of family deals, an unnamed South Australian family has purchased the 967ha Karrara Aggregation at Ecklin South in Victoria’s Western District for about $20 million. The aggregation can run around 20,000 sheep. It was offloaded by Excel Farms, an agricultural company with interests in livestock and cropping that is majority-owned by Canadian fund manager Fiera Comox. Elders agent Rob Rickard brokered the sale.
These sales follow a Rabobank report that showed confidence returning to Australia’s farming sector in the September quarter, following a mid-year dip in sentiment,
Rabobank noted that beneficial rainfall in the west and along the eastern seaboard, as well as improved prices for sheep and beef, supported optimism about the agricultural economy ahead.
