A CHOICE land aggregation recently listed in the Glen Innes district has direct lineage to one of the New England’s founding pastoral families.
William Vivers was one of the wave of land-hungry Scotsmen who landed in NSW during the early 19th century and found the high, cold country they liked in the Northern Tablelands.
In 1832, he took up a run west of Glen Innes called “Kings Plains” (named not in honour of any monarch, but its discoverer, Joseph King) and stocked it with sheep and cattle.
As time went by, the property grew to encompass some 24,000 hectares, the family prospered, and by 1909 Dr George Vivers was able to commission the building of the two-storey mansion known to this day as “Kings Plains Castle”.
The homestead portion of “Kings Plains”, including the landmark homestead, is now owned by the Hollingworth family, but portions of the original station remain in the hands of Vivers.
Among those are the properties now for sale (together) as “Weean” and “Ardleigh”, owned by seventh-generation descendant, Ian Vivers, and his wife, Sally, and their children.
Comprising 1292ha (3196 acres) in total, “Weean”/“Ardleigh” has been listed for private sale by Dugald Storie of Storie Property, Inverell, and Jim Ritchie of Landmark Glen Innes at a walk-in, walk-out asking price (excluding livestock) of $9 million.
The “Weean” portion of the aggregation, which has never been out of Vivers’ hands, was assigned to Ian’s late father, John, in a 1960s family partnership break-up.
“Ardleigh”, a little to the south of “Weean”, was part of the original station resumed for soldier settlement after the Second World War, but was then bought back by Ian’s father in 1980.
The properties were run with other country in a family partnership until 1994, at which time Ian and his two siblings each received their own portions.
Trading as Eaglehawk Pastoral Company (“Eaglehawk” being the name of the original station paddock later hived off as “Ardleigh”), Ian and Sally set about developing a multi-faceted beef cattle operation.
First they established their Beefmark artificial breeding business, converting the “Ardleigh” woolshed into an integrated embryo-transfer facility with space for up to 50 donor females.
Two years later they established their Eaglehawk Angus stud, using foundation females from Te Mania and elsewhere and top-ranked North American genetics.
The present-day Angus herd of around 700 to 800 breeders includes about 400 registered females, from which 80 to 100 bulls are sold each year to NSW and interstate buyers.
A more recent development has been the establishment in 2005 of a 1000-head feedlot, where home-bred cattle are finished for the European Union market and clients’ cattle custom-fed.
Now the Vivers want to move on and pursue a more intensive business model in a central location incorporating the Eaglehawk stud and the Beefmark artificial breeding enterprise.
That leaves the way open for new ownership of a prized
Northern New England grazing property with proven performance, first-class infrastructure and lifestyle features.
Situated 35 kilometres west of Glen Innes, the property comprises level to undulating country of rich basalt soils, variously cropped or pasture improved.
“Weean”, at 755ha the larger of the two portions, occupies a rich valley with extensive farming flats of black basalt, where up to 300ha of corn has been grown in past years.
The 537ha “Ardleigh” is further down the valley and mostly undulating basalt pasture country, topdressed regularly (as is “Weean”) with composted natural fertiliser from the feedlot.
Up to 160ha of “Weean” is usually sown to oats for winter grazing, hay and grain, and corn is grown when needed to replenish the stocks of silage that underpin the feedlot.
About 6000 tonnes of corn silage is now on-hand, and included in the sale of the property.
Feed yards with reticulated water adjacent to the feedlot enable all cows to be held close at hand if necessary for drought feeding.
The feed pads are also used for calving heifers.
Based on their own stocking rates of cows, replacements and sale bulls, the owners estimate “Weean”/“Ardleigh” should comfortably support 1000 breeders with seasonal cropping.
The property boasts extensive stock handling infrastructure, including the ET centre, bull sales complex and the original “Weean” yards designed by Ian’s father that gave their name to the now widely adopted curved race design.
Another set of Weean-style yards adjoins the bull selling complex on “Ardleigh”, and other structures include machinery sheds and workshops, silos and silage bunkers.
Although it doesn’t run to a “castle”, the aggregation comes with two substantial four-bedroom homesteads, both set in landscaped gardens (one with an Open Garden Scheme history).
The property is also home to an independently-operated sapphire mine, which is unobtrusive while generating useful royalty income.
Contact Dugald Storie, (02) 6722 2707 or Jim Ritchie, (02) 6732 2288.
