Yet another large-scale pastoral aggregation has joined the selling frenzy in south-west Queensland’s renowned “salad bowl” region, with the listing this month of “Clover Downs”.
The five-property Cunnamulla district aggregation, comprising 125,293 hectares (309,599ac), is being offloaded by Hassad Australia, the local arm of the Qatari government-backed Hassad Foods.
Hassad bought “Clover Downs” in 2010 in an $18.5 million private transaction from Clyde Agriculture, to become the Merino sheep-breeding flagship of its Australian pastoral operations.
Today it is just one – albeit by far the largest - of 13 property aggregations across five states acquired by Hassad since 2010 for sheep and grain production, with a combined area of just under 300,000ha.
The listing of “Clover Downs”, which is being marketed by expressions of interest through Colliers International, comes hard on the heels of the listing of adjoining “Noorama”, and the nearby eight-property aggregation featured in these pages last week.
No official reason has been given for the offloading of “Clover Downs”, although agents say the present rash of big-ticket sales in the region is a logical response to the favourable season and the abundance of global capital seeking agricultural investments.
With a rated carrying capacity of 64,000 DSE, “Clover Downs” ranks as one of the largest sheep breeding outfits in eastern Australia, and the successful buyer will have the opportunity to make a flying start, by taking up an option to buy the station’s 12,000 Merino ewes.
Situated 68 kilometres south-east of Cunnamulla, and 191km north of Bourke, “Clover Downs” is characterised by a open woodlands of Mitchell grass and bluegrass, interspersed with alluvial plains of floodout country, red soil woodlands and sandy ridges, all supporting a range of grasses, medics and seasonal herbage.
Average rainfall is about 380 millimetres.
Since taking over “Clover Downs”, the present owners have invested heavily in infrastructure upgrading, including the erection of about 150km of Woodstock exclusion fencing along the western and southern boundaries, and more than 200km of internal fencing.
Subdivision fencing has been carefully planned to ensure stock in all paddocks have access to higher ground in wet times. Working improvements include three functional woolsheds of eight, eight and five stands, machinery sheds and steel cattle yards with circular pound yard and six-way draft.
The main homestead on “Clover Downs” is of low-set timber construction with six bedrooms, open-plan kitchen/dining area and gauzed timber deck, set in established gardens with in-ground pool.
It is complemented by a three-bedroom cottage and nine-room quarters on “Clover Downs”, plus the “Talbarea” homestead of five bedrooms and the three-bedroom “Weelamurra” homestead.
Although “Clover Downs” is primarily noted for sheep and wool production, it is also well suited to cattle trading and fattening in season, and goat harvesting provides another income stream.
