AFTER five years of war service including a stint in New Guinea, Narromine-born Preston Martin was delighted when he learned in 1948 that he had won a soldier settlement block in the well-watered Boorowa district.
He was one of 850 applicants for 15 blocks opened for ballot in the Goba Creek/Kenyu soldier settlement scheme, and the block he drew – and subsequently named “Wiruna” – pleased him on several counts.
It had river frontage, soft granite soils well suited to grazing or cropping, a benign easterly aspect and an elevated site ideal for a homestead, although the latter was still a pipedream when Preston first took up residence.
A tar paper hut served as his dwelling while he fenced and installed basic infrastructure, and served also as the initial marital home when he brought his bride, Betty, from Dubbo in the early 1950s to join him while a permanent homestead was being built.
But soon they were settled, running a successful grazing operation and raising a family of two daughters, one of whom, Jayne Martin, now owns the property (both her parents are deceased) and manages it from her home in Canberra.
It is she who is now selling “Wiruna” – for the first time in nearly 70 years – and the property will go to auction in Canberra on December 19 through CBRE’s Col Medway and Richie Inglis.
Comprising 473 hectares (1169ac), “Wiruna” is situated 22 kilometres north of Boorowa by sealed road, in a region of gently undulating red granite country running down to the Boorowa River, which forms the property’s eastern boundary.
Introduced perennial pastures have been established over 106ha of the property, while a further 80ha is under oats and 19ha under fodder rape. The balance is native perennial pasture and clover, all supered and limed as needed since the 1950s.
The property is conservatively stocked as a deliberate policy of the absentee owner to minimise any need for supplementary feeding, and is currently carrying 930 Merino ewes rearing Merino and White Suffolk-cross lambs, plus ewe replacements.
However, it is estimated that with “hands-on” management, and continuation of the present pasture maintenance program, the property should support a stocking rate of sheep or cattle equivalent to 4000 DSE.
Average rainfall is about 600mm and the property is amply watered by its 2km frontage to the Boorowa River (which has permanent holes), dams and an equipped bore which feeds a reticulation system of 20 troughs.
A large brick-veneer homestead with four bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, formal lounge and dining rooms and a self-contained granny flat, now occupies the elevated site on “Wiruna” (an Aboriginal word meaning “distant views”) where Preston once camped in his rudimentary hut.
The homestead is set in established gardens flanked by mature trees and a tennis court.
“Wiruna” is expected to fetch about $2.25m.
