A northern NSW mixed farming property that was once the scene of a visionary Englishman’s bold agricultural experiment will go under the hammer in Inverell next week.
Arrawatta Station is today a diverse 1335 hectare (3300ac) farming, grazing and irrigation property on the Macintyre River, held for more than 60 years by the Mitchell family. It was somewhat smaller when purchased in 1950 by Alan and Betty Mitchell, at which time it was operated principally as a grazing property, carrying sheep and cattle.
Their son Andrew took over the management in 1983 with his wife Rosemary and they subsequently acquired an adjoining block of about 280ha, bringing “Arrawatta” to its present size. Following Andrew’s death, Rosemary Mitchell has carried on the management of the property and last year she submitted it to auction without result.
Now she is keen to retire and the property has been listed for sale again, this time with CBRE, and it will go to auction in Inverell on May 4, when bidding is expected to top $6 million.
The auction has attracted keen local interest, not least because of the property’s colourful history, which goes back to the early years of last century when it was bought by the English-born Thomas Bowling.
At that time (1903) it encompassed some 8500 acres (3400ha) owned by Merewether Brothers and ran more than 11,000 sheep, but Bowling saw it as a potential dairy estate. He subdivided the property into eight tenanted dairy farms, each fully equipped, and built a cheese factory to which the milk from 450 top-grade Dairy Shorthorn cows was being delivered by 1912.
But over-capitalisation and ill-timed drought brought the venture undone, and in 1923 Bowling leased “Arrawatta” to the NSW government for use as a training farm for migrants. It later played a part as one of several farms in NSW used to train disadvantaged boys from English cities for Australian farm work, under the so-called Dreadnought scheme founded in 1911.
The modern-day “Arrawatta” combines lucerne hay production with cereal cropping and cattle grazing.
Situated 14 kilometres north of Inverell fronting the Macintyre River, the property rises from alluvial river flats to arable basalt slopes and low hills of open or lightly timbered grazing country. A centre pivot irrigator services three circles totalling about 51ha on the river flats, growing lucerne for hay or grazing, backed by a 452 megalitre river licence.
On the arable dryland country, just under 500ha is now cropped to winter cereals under a leasing arrangement, with scope to expand the cultivation area to 600ha if desired.
The balance of the country is lightly stocked with 120 cows and 180 weaner, yearling and trade cattle.
Average rainfall is about 800 millimetres and the property is watered by its 8.5 kilometres river frontage and 32 dams.
Improvements include the weatherboard Federation-era homestead of six bedrooms with a brick courtyard, another six-bedroom residence, cattle yards, hay and grain sheds and an old four-stand shearing shed.
