Outback Wagyu powerhouse to test appetite for top-end farms

The property, extensively developed over more than two decades, can support a herd of about 6500 cattle and fatten about 900 bullocks a year.

“The incoming buyer will need to spend virtually nothing on the property – the fencing, waters, cattle yards and accommodation are all in A1 condition, and Taylors Plains is in a highly regarded ‘safe’ area with an average of 605 millimetres of annual rainfall,” Mr Chiconi said.

“We have been breeding Wagyu cattle since 2014. They do very well on the dense stands of buffel supported by native grasses. Our decision to sell has not been taken lightly, but it’s time.”

The Chiconis purchased what was then a drought-stricken property in 2003 for $7.15 million at auction from grazier Sinclair Hill. Its now-extensive infrastructure includes a 1.4-kilometre airstrip as well as 118 kilometres of laneways and formed roads.

The property alone is expected to sell for more than $70 million with livestock, plant and equipment (also available to be purchased) taking its total enterprise value to around $75 million.

Taylors Plains is being taken to market by Col Medway, Tim McKinnon and Grant Veivers from real estate agency LAWD.

“Taylors Plains’ combination of land types and pasture provides tremendous carrying capacity and fattening capability, as proven by the Chiconi family’s success in first turning off quality Angus cattle, and for the past 10 years, premium Wagyu feeder steers,” Mr Medway said.

Its listing comes as values for better quality livestock properties in Central Queensland hold firm at market peaks of 2022 and 2023 amid a softening in values for second and third-tier assets.

“Throughout the course of 2024 the northern [Australia] pastoral zone has emerged as a multi-speed market with a continued level of demand and strong value levels for premium properties, while second-tier assets, which are often subject to higher operating input requirements, have met a level of market resistance,” Herron Todd White director Will McLay wrote in the valuation firm’s December 2024 monthly market update.

On the Apple Isle

Also testing appetite at the top end of the market in February – and listed for sale for the first time in more than 90 years – is premier grazing, cropping and native forest property Mineral Banks in north-east Tasmania.

Spanning 1236 hectares near Ringarooma – about 58 kilometres north-east of Launceston – Mineral Banks has been held by multiple generations of the Foster family, who were regulars on the Financial Review Rich List in the 1990s and early 2000s (headed by Campbell Town grazier Henry Foster).

Much of the family’s wealth came through its investment in one country’s biggest cattle farmers and landowners The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO). The Fosters started investing in NAPCO in the 1930s and at one point owned 43 per cent of the company. They retained a 20 per cent stake in NAPCO when the Queensland Investment Corporation acquired an 80 per cent interest in 2016.

Mineral Banks includes 781 hectares developed for grazing, 55 hectares for intensive cropping and 400 hectares of native forest.

It is suited to higher-value farming operations, including dairy farming, intensive cropping, and irrigation infrastructure development for livestock fattening operations.

Reliable water supply is a key feature of Mineral Banks. The property is traversed by the Dorset River and New River and benefits from 420 megalitres of Tasmanian Irrigation water from the Upper Ringarooma scheme.

Structural improvements include multiple residential dwellings, machinery sheds, hay sheds, three sets of cattle yards, and a three-stand shearing shed.

Mineral Banks is being taken to market by Colliers’ agents Duncan McCulloch, Connor Dixon and Rawdon Briggs.

The agents declined to comment on the asking price, but local sources said it could sell for more than $30 million.

“The property’s extensive infrastructure supports both beef cattle and fat lamb production,” Mr Dixon said.

“Additionally, the significant volumes of hardwood timber in the native forest present diversified forestry opportunities and potential for biodiversity stewardship and carbon farming.”

On a far smaller scale, but likely to generate interest from rural lifestyle buyers over February, is the offering of the 95-hectare Dungowan Estate near Braidwood in the NSW Southern Tablelands. It goes to auction on March 3 and is expected to sell for around $3.5 million.

The luxury property, which includes a six-bedroom homestead, private lake and boathouse with accommodation quarters is being sold by Deanna Barilaro, who separated from her husband, former NSW Nationals leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro in 2021.

The couple purchased the property for $2.015 million in 2014. It is now solely owned by Ms Barilaro, who had offered it as a holiday rental charging around $2000 a night.