A famous riverside station property in Queensland’s western Darling Downs is back in play, five years after being bought and developed by a South African partnership.
Bengalla Station is a 2519 hectare (6225ac) irrigated cropping and grazing property fronting the Dumaresq River near Yelarbon, 45 kilometres east of Goondiwindi.
It was bought by the present owners, two families of South African origin trading as Bengalla Station Pty Ltd, in 2012 following a receivers’ auction and is for sale now to wind up the partnership.
The property will go to auction on June 2 through Elders Goondiwindi’s Clayton Smith, who says land in the area has been selling from $700 to $1000-plus an acre ($1750-$2500/ha) depending on arability and soil type.
If not sold as a whole, the property will be offered in four blocks.
Bengalla Station has a long history, having been taken up in 1840 by D.G. Scott before being acquired in 1852 by the Irish-born William Lalor, whose extended family held it for more than 70 years.
In William Lalor’s time it was a property of some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), running predominantly cattle, before resumptions for closer settlement trimmed its area.
In 1924 the property was bought by John Parker from Coolatai in northern NSW.
He ran Merino sheep, whose wool regularly gained top prices at Brisbane sales, and a respected Hereford cattle herd.
The present owners run an Angus breeding operation based on about 460 cows with progeny grown to feedlot or slaughter weights.
Cash and fodder cropping compliments the business.
Described as generally level, lightly timbered floodplain country of heavy black to red/grey loam soils, the property has undergone extensive development in recent years.
About 600ha is now farmed (currently to oats, barley and forage sorghum), with scope for expansion, leaving a balance of grazing country comprising native pastures and sub-tropical grasses.
Irrigation consists of two centre pivots servicing three 40ha pads and 120ha of lateral move irrigation (which is currently unused), drawing water from a permanent creek and bores.
The property’s rich pastures and irrigated crop potential, coupled with its proximity to abattoirs and selling centres, make it well suited to cattle trading.
The operation yields an annual turn-off of up to 1000 head.
While cattle have been the focus of recent years, a long-idle eight-stand woolshed and yards bear testimony to a time half a century ago when “Bengalla” carried more than 7000 sheep.
Average rainfall is in the 570-600 millimetre band, summer dominant, and the property is amply watered by its seven kilometre frontage to the permanent Dumaresq River, the permanent Kippenbung Creek, and bores.
Major investment in infrastructure over the past 10 years has resulted in a high standard of working improvements including steel cattle yards with curved race and covered work area, enclosed machinery shed/workshop and 1200 tonnes of elevated silo grain storage.
A low-set weatherboard homestead of four bedrooms with wide, gauzed verandahs is set in established gardens overlooking the river. The set-up is complete with an in-ground pool and entertaining deck.
It is complemented by a three-bedroom staff cottage and a former shearers’ quarters now reconfigured as a five-bedroom seasonal worker or guest accommodation.