THOSE who keep a close eye on the rural property market would know that when a property becomes available for the first time in more than a century there's certainly something special about it.
And so is the case for a tightly-held block at Gundagai.
Owned by the Reardon family for well over a century - 163 years in fact - "Spillbury" is now availble as a rural listing as part of the family's retirement and succession plans.
Peter Reardon represents the fourth generation of his family to have farmed "Spillbury", following on from another Peter Reardon, his great-grandfather, who secured an initial portion of the property back in 1862.
Reardon had come to Australia from Ireland in 1858 and eventually settled in Gundagai, had six children, and set up a long family ownership of land in the district.
The family's landholdings expanded through the years, and were also divided within the family; "Spill- bury", at 230ha (570ac) today, was one of those divide portions.
Peter Reardon has lived on the property all his life, taking over ownership in 1995.
In the early days of the family ownership, the land was mostly devoted to sheep and some cattle.
Mr Reardon's father introduced hay making to the property, also producing lambs for the store market and running cattle.
Under current ownership, the property has produced prime lambs and cattle.
Mr Reardon, at times, ran up to 1000 ewes, and some cattle, but 15 years ago started leasing out his property.
Recently the property has been running about 1000 lambs finished on lucerne flats and from 160 to 170 Angus heifers.
By leasing out his country, Mr Reardon had time to focus on other aspects, including planting 5000 trees (white, grey and yellow box) along creeks and gullies.
A strong emphasis has also been placed on weed control on the property, as well as fertiliser.
Aside from grazing capacity, "Spillbury" benefits from good creek flats with a double front- age to Jones Creek, allowing lucerne or fodder production.
Grazing land features native and improved pastures and stock control is enhanced by a central laneway.
It has been divided into 10 paddocks.
Soils are a mixture of loams and basalts.
The four-bedroom house is of weatherboard construction, offering both an open fireplace and slow combustion heater, an outdoor entertaining area with a pergola and an established garden.
Infrastructure comprises a set of steel cattle yards, hay and machinery sheds and silos.
Aside from the creek frontage, "Spillbury" also has six dams and a bore.
The property is located in close proximity to Gundagai, only about 3.5 kilometers to the north west of town.
"Spillbury" heads to auction on October 22 through David Nolan, Webster Nolan Real Estate, and Jim Saunderson and Abb McAlis- ter, McAlister Saunderson Stubbs Real Estate, Gundagai and Tumut.
Price expectations at auction are between $1.1 million and $1.25m.
n Contact David Nolan, 0447 278 236; Jim Saunderson, 0428 441 317, or Abb McAlister, 0428 441 300.