Eastern Riverina beauty

The well-known Culcairn property has served as both a sheep and cattle stud over the years, and could again after it goes to auction later this month, if not bought for lifestyle or commercial uses.

Comprising 270 hectares (667 acres) of rich farmland fronting Billabong Creek just two kilometres east of Culcairn, "Round Hill Homestead" is the property of Cameron and Wendy Mackie.

The Mackies bought the property three years ago from John and Jane Roysmith, but are selling now because of the competing demands of a newly-acquired engineering business in Holbrook.

They have listed the property with Brian Liston of Landmark Albury, and it will go to auction on October 30 with price expectations of $3 million "plus".

"Round Hill Homestead" is the core of the former Round Hill Station, one of the original pastoral runs of the Eastern Riverina, settled in the 1840s and acquired in 1859 by the Henty brothers.

In 1878 the property was made over to James Balfour, a partner in the Hentys' Melbourne business (and son-in-law of family patriarch James Henty) as consideration for a forced dissolution of the partnership.

Balfour entrusted the management of "Round Hill" and another nearby station, "Killara", to his sons.

At its peak, Round Hill Station was a sprawl of some 30,000ha, carrying upwards of 30,000 sheep (shorn in the 27-stand shed still standing), before subdivision sales began to erode the estate from 1912.

The station remained in Balfour hands until the 1950s, when (by then reduced to about 1200ha) it was bought by Anthony Hordern Jnr and transformed into a stud for his Shorthorn cattle and Southdown sheep.

The homestead portion was hived off as a separate holding in 1988, when bought by the Roysmiths, who restored and renovated the historic homestead and established a Limousin cattle stud on the property.

Under the present ownership "Round Hill Station" has been managed as a cattle trading enterprise, with supplementary cropping. As a breeding operation, it is estimated the property would comfortably carry 300 cows.

A feature of the property is its double frontage to Billabong Creek (dubbed the longest "creek" in the world), from which the country opens to rich alluvial flats, studded with stately river gum and yellow box.

Perennial pastures have been upgraded in the past three years and grazing canola has performed well in rotations.

Stock water is sourced from the creek backed up by bores and a well reticulating to paddock troughs.

The property's key selling point is the elegant, country-style homestead, incorporating the original 1840s structure with modern extensions added in 2001 under the direction of Melbourne architect Chris Humphreys.

With formal lounge and dining rooms, a gourmet kitchen and outdoor entertaining areas, the four-bedroom home sits in landscaped gardens beside Billabong Creek with an in-ground saltwater pool.

Other structures include a separate guest quarters, the huge stud shed erected by Anthony Hordern and now doubling as a machinery shed, steel cattle yards with covered work area and the original woolshed, still in use.

The property has been virtually destocked in readiness for the sale, and a successful purchaser will be allowed access to the abundant pastures immediately following exchange of contracts.