PASTORAL investor Anthony Crichton-Brown has expanded his Western Riverina landholding footprint with the private purchase of Natue Station at Booligal from its longtime owners, the Robinson family.
Today an aggregation of close to 16,000 hectares incorporating “Fairleigh”, Natue Station was settled in the 1880s by Henry Wilton Robinson and has been held by the family ever since, managed principally as a Merino sheep enterprise.
The property was put to the market by Inglis Rural Property in December by expressions of interest, sparking strong buyer interest and resulting in about 15 submissions being lodged.
Mr Crichton-Brown, a former chairman of Lumley Insurance in London who divides his time now between Australia and the UK, is already a substantial landholder in the Hay district, where his Coolong Pastoral owns the 29,000ha Toronga Station. It was a larger holding of about 35,000ha when purchased in 2010, but Mr Crichton-Brown has since sold off the high-input irrigation country, to reinvest in more low-input pastoral land – which he found close at hand in Natue Station.
Situated about 100 kilometres by road from “Toronga”, Natue Station will be operated in conjunction with “Toronga”, running sheep and cattle, under the overall direction of Coolong Pastoral’s managing director, Jack Byrnes.
Mr Crichton-Brown previously held “Deltroit” and Humula Station in the Eastern Riverina as well as Toronga Station, but sold “Deltroit” in late 2012 to Australian Pastoral Group (APG) and “Humula” to a Victorian buyer early last year. In another rejigging of his Australian portfolio, Mr Crichton-Brown last year bought historic “Merrilla” at Goulburn, the 388ha homestead portion of the former Chisholm station property, owned in recent years by Malcolm Webster.
The sale of Natue Station was a coup for Inglis Rural Property sales manager Sam Triggs and Inglis director Jamie Inglis, coming in the wake of other notable sales of “Beckworth Court” at Ballarat (Vic), “Redman Park” in the Hunter Valley and Ruane Stud at Camden. Inglis Rural Property also introduced the buyer of “Merrilla” (sold by Christies International Real Estate), and the company today (May 19) closes tenders for its latest high-profile offering, “Deltroit”, which is being resold by APG.
Situated 31 kilometres west of Booligal and about 110km north of Hay, Natue Station has 13km of double frontage to Merrimajeel Creek, extensive water systems, well-maintained improvements and a five-bedroom homestead built in the 1980s.
“Fairleigh”, which forms part of the aggregation, is located 31km to the south-west. Another portion, “Box Creek”, with Lachlan River frontage, was originally offered for sale as part of the package but is now to be retained by the vendors.
No price has been disclosed for the sale of Natue Station, but Mr Triggs said grazing land in the Booligal region was typically selling between $250-$375/ha ($100-$150/ac) depending on the standard of improvements.
