Swiss outfit to exit $100m of Queensland cattle stations
Two major cattle stations in north-west Queensland, worth $100 million or more in total, have been put on the market by Swiss Australian Farm Holdings, a substantial pastoral platform that was assembled by a Swiss aviation executive.
The 143,000-hectare Neumayer Valley Station is just south of Carpentaria in the Gulf Country, while the 30,000-hectare Elrose Station is near Cloncurry, in the heart of the state’s north-west.
They form part of a substantial cattle and sheep empire stretching from the country’s south to its north that was quietly put together over years by Oskar J. Schwenk, the former chairman and chief of Switzerland-based Pilatus Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of single-engine turboprop corporate and military aircraft.
Schwenk, the sole shareholder of Swiss Australian Farm Holdings, died in 2023. The agricultural portfolio he created includes two South Australian farms where Angus cattle and Merino sheep are produced, a 74,000-hectare property at Broken Hill with 10,000 sheep and the two Queensland stations.
The Queensland stations are being offered individually, with Colliers’ Rawdon Briggs and Jesse Manuel appointed, along with Prophurst’s Bram Pollock.
Neumayer Valley Station is a large-scale breeding property fronting the Alexandra and Leichardt Rivers, running across flood-out and downs country. It is being offered as a going concern with about 16,000 head of brahman cattle.
At McKinlay, Elrose Station has changed hands only once in more than 100 years and for decades was home to one of Queensland’s best-known brahman studs and selling complexes.
The property comprises a combination of freehold and leasehold country with additional land permits totalling more than 30,000 hectares. It takes in Mitchell grass and Flinders grass downs country, with an extensive network of rivulets and channels linked to the seasonal Fullarton River system.
More recently, Elrose has been used for backgrounding cattle – achieving further growth after weaning – and is up for grabs on a bare basis.
“The location of Elrose Station positions it as a strategic fit for live export operations, and with its moderate climatic features and tick-free status, the property is also able to support herds with a more Bos Taurus influence to access higher value domestic markets,” Colliers’ Manuel said.
