For the second time in three years, a historic Mudgee district grazing property with links to early colonial settlement and wartime contingency planning has come up for sale.
Wing Vee is a large 3865 hectare (9552ac) property at Triamble, near Hargraves, which was bought in 2016 as an adjunct to their Dubbo and Queensland grazing properties by Eric Sharwood and his father Ross.
The Sharwoods are selling now to concentrate on their Queensland operation near St George, and have listed Wing Vee for sale by auction with Chris Korff of Ray White Rural Coonabarabran.
It’s an offering likely to appeal to “tree-changers” and city investors for its spectacular and private location, and to established grazing interests for its impressive scale and its high-quality improvements.
Wing Vee started life as an 1889 subdivision of Triamble Station, which was taken up in the early 1830s by the Suttor family of Brucedale, Bathurst.
The portion now known is Wing Vee was still in Suttor hands in the 1950s.
The unusual Wing Vee name was acquired during the Second World War, when the property’s two airstrips were used for pilot training.
Later the property was owned for a time by high-profile aviator and businessman Dick Smith.
Before the Sharwoods bought Wing Vee, it was held for 23 years by Ron and Judith Hansen, who ran the property from a home base in the Blue Mountains.
Since taking over Wing Vee, the present owners have invested heavily in infrastructure upgrades, including 22 kilometres of new fencing.
Situated 66 kilometres south-west of Mudgee and about four hours’ drive from Sydney, Wing Vee occupies a scenic sweep of plateau and hill country overlooking the Macquarie River where it backs up from Burrendong Dam.
The elevation range is mostly between 500 metres and 700m, descending to 400m where the property flanks the Macquarie River for 14km, and about 1200ha of the total area is described as arable.
Soils range from basalt, over about one-third of the property, to lighter loams and pockets of slate, all supporting a pasture base of native and introduced grasses and clover.
Although now lightly stocked with about 120 cows, the property has carried up to 700 cows and calves and 5000 sheep, and comes with a vendor-estimated carrying capacity of 14,000 DSE.
Average rainfall is 650 millimetres. Apart from its frontages to the river and Triamble Creek, the property is watered by spring-fed dams (some new) and a bore reticulating to troughs across the property’s 31 main paddocks.
Working improvements include a six-stand Econo electric woolshed with new steel sheep yards, two outlying sets of sheep yards, new steel cattle yards with six-way draft, new machinery shed, workshop, haysheds and silos.
A four- or five-bedroom homestead dating from the late 1930s has been recently renovated and features a new kitchen and bathroom, new floor coverings, fresh painting, new timber deck and new plumbing and wiring. Two fibro cottages and shearers’ quarters provide additional accommodation.
WingVee will go to auction in Brisbane on March 29, when it is expected the keen-to-sell vendors will meet the market.
