Nearly 70 years of one-family ownership will come to a close next month when the Crookwell district grazing property, “Eastleigh”, goes under the auctioneer’s hammer.
“Eastleigh” was one of five soldier settler blocks created in 1949 with the break-up of Leighwood Station, when it was drawn by the then manager of “Leighwood”, Norman King.
It has been held by the King family ever since, and it goes to auction in Goulburn on October 20 through Elders Goulburn as a highly productive property of 520 hectares (1285ac).
'Eastleigh' was one of five soldier settler blocks created in 1949 with the break-up of Leighwood Station
King had been a Japanese prisoner of war and survived the horrors of Changi and the Burma railway to return to Australia and a life on the land, initially working on his family’s property at Darlington Point.
From there, he took up the job of manager at the 7000 acre “Leighwood” at Golspie on the Southern Tablelands, midway between Crookwell and Taralga, owned by another Darlington Point family, the Cooks.
When he succeeded in drawing one of the “Leighwood” blocks in the 1949 ballot (and his brother, Jack, drew another), King – with his wife Alma (nee Pollock) from a pioneering local family – lost no time turning it into a model grazing property.
“Eastleigh” was so named because of its predominantly easterly aspect, the mostly arable (about 400ha) property boasts a productive mix of basalt and soft granite soils, with some shale on the eastern boundary.
All of the arable country was sown to a pasture mix that included clovers, ryegrass, phalaris, cocksfoot and fescue. Native pastures on the remainder include microlaena and danthonia.
A Member of the Legislative Council for 10 years, Norman died in 1992 and today it is owned by his son, Peter, and his wife, Kate, who live in Goulburn, where Peter is a director with rural chartered accounting firm, Boyce.
Since 1994, “Eastleigh” has been ably managed by David and Estelle Roberts, who manage a highly regarded Merino flock (winner of the 2017 Taralga flock ewe competition) in consultation with Dubbo-based sheep classer, Allan Clarke.
The pasture improvement program has been maintained – for the past 12 years with input from local agronomist, Bryn Rees – with fertiliser applied as needed and about 40ha sown to crop annually.
Average rainfall is about 800 millimetres and the property is watered by dams, two seasonal creeks and a new bore which supplies 16 concrete troughs across the 200ha of basalt country.
Other investments by the present owners include a new set of steel cattle yards, new steel sheep yards and the planting of about 5000 native trees as fenceline shelter belts.
Structural improvements include the four-bedroom homestead, built in 1950 and later extended with a large timber deck, a three-stand shearing shed, lock-up garage/workshop and silos.
Bidding for “Eastleigh” is expected to range upwards of $2.8 million.