When Shane and Natasha Peasley bought the Wandella property now for sale in the Condobolin district, it was intended as a sheep breeding adjunct to their Myall Park irrigation farm at Forbes.
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Family moves since then have forced a change of plan, however, and the Peasleys are now reluctantly offloading Wandella, leaving a choice buying opportunity in Central West mixed farming heartland.
Situated 75 kilometres north of Condobolin and 40km from both Tottenham and Albert, Wandella is a substantial property of 3314 hectares (8189ac), nearly all of which is arable.
Before being taken over by the present owners, Wandella was held for many years by successive generations of the Fisher family, and prior to the 1970s, by the Baker family.
Wandella has now been listed for private sale by Ainslie Toole of Landmark Forbes with an asking price of $560/ac ($1383/ha), or about $4.85 million.
It's an offering likely to appeal to investors wanting a well-set-up property with the scale for an extensive mixed grain-growing and livestock operation, and scope for further development.
Described as mostly arable, with timbered ridges, the property is a mix of kurrajong, box and pine country with mostly red loam soils, tending to lighter loams on the ridges.
Up to 2400ha is available for cropping, with potential to develop a further 400ha (subject to approval), and country not under crop carries a mix of winter and summer grasses, trefoils and clover.
Under present management the property is used primarily for sheep breeding, with a self-replacing flock of 4000 Coddington Poll Merino ewes (now being shorn) producing a woolclip of around 120 bales.
The property also supports about 40 breeding cows and a winter cropping program - about 600ha is ready for 2019 sowing - for grain and fodder.
Because of its location at the southern extremity of the northern cropping belt, with reliable summer/autumn rainfall, Wandella is well suited to the growing of dual-purpose grazing/grain cereal crops.
Average rainfall is 450mm and the property is watered by 24 dams (all but two of which are now full) and a double frontage to the seasonal Tiger Creek.
Good catchments are a feature of Wandella, with most of the dams capable of filling on less than 50mm of rain.
The property is subdivided into 20 main paddocks and about 4km of fencing has been recently renewed.
A comfortable four-bedroom homestead of brick and timber construction features a modern kitchen and open-plan living/dining area plus a large sunroom or extra living room.
It is set in established gardens with an in-ground pool, coolroom and double garage, and complemented by a three-bedroom cottage recently fitted with a new hot water system.
Working improvements include a four-stand shearing shed with steel sheep yards, machinery and grain sheds, portable-style steel panel cattle yards and nine silos of 570 tonnes total capacity.
As part of the sale package, the successful purchaser the first right to negotiate the purchase of up to 1500 ewes.
- Agent: Ainslie Toole, 0407 946 838. Landmark Harcourts Forbes.
