THE decision to sell “Rosedale” hasn’t been easy for siblings Coralie Millgate and Andrew Black.
The small grazing property near Scone was where they grew up as children and indeed it was home to their mother and her own mother before that.
“It’s been in our family for 120 years but our father is now in his ‘80s and the time has come for us to sell. We certainly have lots of fond memories of the place,” Mr Black said.
The property was originally settled by Mr Black’s great grandfather Walter Ashford and was most recently handed down to the next generation by Noreen Barwick.
Mr Black, who now lives in Sydney, described the country as soft rolling basalt grazing country.
“It’s highly productive. It’s got good black self mulching soil.”
The 197 hectare (487 acre) property was once a farming block but now runs up to 150 head of cattle.
“In recent years we’ve been buying in steers and finishing them,” Mr Black said.
He said the place was ideally located – just 20 minutes from Scone on the Merriwa Road. It had good boundary fencing and was subdivided into six main grazing paddocks.
The property, which adjoins Cuan Station and Emu Holes, had reliable access to water.
The district has an annual rainfall of 600 millimetres and the place was equipped with a bore with an electric submersible pump which can pump to 20,000 gallons to gravity fed tanks.
“The focus of our improvements in recent years has been making sure the place is drought proof,” Mr Black said.
He said there were five good dams on the property.
The homestead on “Rosedale” is an original three bedroom timber home with one bathroom. The bathroom had been recently renovated but Mr Black said there was ample scope to modernise the home.
Mr Black recalled his mother, Noreen, was an only child who took her schooling in the house via correspondence.
“It hasn’t changed much to this day,” he added.
Other infrastructure on the property consisted of an old shearing shed with power, steel/timber cattle yards and a two-bay lock up shed.
“Rosedale” will be auctioned by Adam O’Regan and Gavin Beard of Landmark Harcourts Scone on July 15 at 2pm.
Mr O’Regan said the property was ideally located to access the services offered in Scone and Merriwa.
“If you are after a very productive small grazing operation in the Upper Hunter you must inspect this one,” Mr O’Regan said.
