Lake Goran winner

But this is the package now being marketed by Scott Waters for Chris Ward Property Sales of Tamworth, to allow a scaling-down of farming interests of the locally long-established Clift family.

Garary Station is a 4204-hectare (10,388ac) aggregation built up over three generations and now operated by brothers Sam and Andrew Clift, in conjunction with other nearby properties, "The Dip" and "Birrawa".

It comprises the original Clift holdings "Lochaber" and "Ardmore", the adjoining "Boori" purchased in partnership with the brothers' late father, George, and the most recent addition, "Garary", which gave its name to the whole when annexed by the brothers about three years ago.

This is the aggregation that is now for sale by "informal tender", a process that allows for more flexibility in the negotiation stages than a formal tender, and is more like an "expressions of interest" offering.

Situated 15 kilometres north-west of Spring Ridge and 26km south-east of Gunnedah, Garary Station is one of several long-held properties abutting onto the ephemeral Lake Goran.

As such, it is in prime Liverpool Plains cropping heartland and well clear of the proposed Shenhua Watermark coal mining development causing ructions on ridge country further east.

Of the total area of Garary Station, 2734ha is described as prime black and chocolate cultivation country of which 1100ha is subject to occasional inundation when the lake fills from local runoff.

When that occurs, the temporary loss of use of the country is compensated for by the ideal cropping opportunities that follow, in the rich, weed-free soil with its deep profile of retained moisture.

A further 740ha of the property is red loam and red sandy loam country used for fodder cropping and sown pastures, leaving a balance of native grass country with some retained timber.

The property is managed now as a mixed winter/summer cropping and cattle breeding/finishing operation, making the most of the naturally rich soils and the historically reliable 600mm average rainfall.

A key selling point is the inclusion of standing crops, described by Sam Clift as potentially "the best crops we've grown", having been favoured by two recently well-timed falls of rain.

The given-in crops comprise 1558ha of barley and 476ha of wheat, in addition to which an area of about 700ha is fallowed for cotton. Other crops grown have included canola, mungbeans, sorghum and sunflower.

Grazing country is conservatively stocked and currently carrying about 400 breeding cows (mostly bought in as PTIC stores, calved down for a year or two, and sold as fats) and 250 young cattle.

Stock water is supplied from an equipped well to paddock troughs by a reticulation system, backed up by dams.

The main homestead of weatherboard and tile construction has three bedrooms and an enclosed verandah.

Nearby is a clad cottage of two bedrooms, while the older "Boori" homestead offers restoration potential.

Working improvements include modern steel cattle yards, a five-bay steel machinery shed with workshop, five other steel machinery sheds plus hay and grain sheds and a 250-tonne cone-bottom silo.

Offers for Garary Station must be lodged as "informal tender" bids with the selling agent by October 14.

Contact Scott Waters, 0428 860 435.

The print version of this story, which appears in the Domain section of The Land of September 17, contains an incorrect figure relating to the area of Garary Station subject to periodic inundation by Lake Goran. It says that of the 2734 hectares of prime black and chocolate cultivation country on the property, 2720 hectares is subject to occasional inundation. That latter figure was actually the number of acres, not hectares, so the area subject to occasional inundation is in fact only 1100 hectares, leaving 1634 hectares (or 4035 acres) of the prime cultivation country flood-free.