TRT Pastoral sells southern Riverina cattle properties for $60 million
Prominent Melbourne businessman Tim Roberts-Thomson and his family have sold 33,000 hectares of prime grazing land fronting the Murrumbidgee River in NSW’s southern Riverina for about $60 million, adding to a strong start to the summer rural selling season.
Mr Roberts-Thomson’s TRT Pastoral Company struck an off-market deal to sell Juanbung and Boyong stations near Oxley to a local group.
The two stations, which have a 55-kilometre frontage to the Murrumbidgee River, are backgrounding properties for up to 10,000 beef cattle heading to nearby feedlots every year as well as being home to one of the largest privately owned river red gum forests and the Juanbung Mill.
Mr Roberts-Thomson and his brother Barry once owned 30 per cent of telecom giant Hutchison Australia, which owns half of Vodafone Australia.
TRT Pastoral Group’s major holding is the King Island Aggregation off Tasmania, which is operated as an Angus cattle breeding and finishing enterprise, with 15,000 head and more than 7000 Angus breeders. Mr Roberts-Thomson bought it for $45 million from the Sustainable Agricultural Fund in November 2017.
He said the sales of Juanbung and Boyong stations allowed TRT Pastoral to focus on building the King Island beef business along with its mainland operations.
“We believe the assets will be well stewarded by the incoming owners and that they will retain our loyal staff and enhance the business operations,” he said.
The sale of the two stations was brokered by CBRE’s Danny Thomas alongside consultant Chris Olszak from Aithers.
Mr Thomas declined to reveal the identity of the buyer, but indicated they were locally based as no Foreign Investment Review Board approval is required. The new owners will continue to operate the Juanbung Mill, which produces firewood and charcoal.
“The sale of Juanbung and Boyong stations is evidence of the strong investment appetite for grazing land with significant scale in the Southern Riverina. Multiple parties showed interest in the property,” Mr Thomas said.
Their sale follows Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC), one of the country’s largest privately owned cattle enterprises, selling three cattle stations in the Northern Territory and Queensland to a Vietnamese company for $135 million last week and an American investment fund buying a major almond property in South Australia for about $15 million.
Just before Christmas, the country’s second biggest farm, Clifton Hills Station in the far north-east corner of South Australia was sold to Australian beef cattle farmers Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello of Crown Pastoral Company for more than $34 million.
