A Murray Valley property reputed to have been home at one time to Australia's largest vineyard and winery has been listed for sale, in a rare offering likely to attract an entrepreneurial buyer with a sense of history.
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On offer is the Fairfield property at Rutherglen founded in 1859 by George Francis Morris, whose wines in the late 1800s established Rutherglen's global reputation as a premier winegrowing district.
The property was sold out of the family following Morris's death in 1910, but then bought back - after three intermediate ownerships - by his great-granddaughter Melba Morris-Slamen in 1973.
Mrs Morris-Slamen spent many years restoring the historic property before her death late last year and now it's up to a new owner to finish the job, as the family is selling Fairfield to wind up her estate.
The historic property has been listed for sale by Landmark Harcourts of Sydney and Albury and R.T. Edgar from Melbourne, with expressions of interest closing due by November 7.
Comprising 851 hectares (2101ac), the property is being offered as a whole, or in five blocks, thus making it attractive to a new investor or to existing landholders in the area looking to expand.
Just under half the total area (396ha) is in the Fairfield homestead block, on which stands the grand, two-storey mansion erected for Morris in 1889 and the various heritage buildings once used for winemaking.
Situated 11 kilometres east of Rutherglen and 35km west of Albury, Fairfield is a property of level to slightly undulating country of mostly red loam soils with some floodplain areas of grey-brown clay loams.
In its winemaking heyday the property boasted some 280ha of vines, but now only 8ha of (untended) vines remain, although the sale package includes a 99-megalitre high-security water entitlement, offering potential for future production of the winegrapes.
Of the total area about 730ha is considered arable, of which 490ha has been sharefarmed since 2012 to a cropping rotation of wheat, canola and triticale, leaving a balance of clover/rye grazing country.
Average rainfall is 565mm and two bores provide reticulated water to troughs in most of the property's 31 paddocks, supplemented by 20 dams.
The visual centrepiece of Fairfield is its massive Victorian homestead, built in Italianate style of cement rendered bricks with 21 rooms including five bedrooms plus various living rooms, a billiard room and ballroom.
Other original buildings surrounding the homestead are the double-brick wine cellar, the fermentation block (still with vats and other equipment), bond house, horse stables and two-room cottage.
Contemporary working structures include a two-stand shearing shed, sheep and cattle yards and 18 cone-based silos with total capacity for 900 tonnes.
On the 120ha Homeleigh block is a two-bedroom, brick-veneer cottage, plus hay and machinery sheds, while the 194ha Mills block also comes with a cottage and shedding.
Recent sales in the area suggest a likely bare land value of around $11,000/ha for Fairfield.
By PETER AUSTIN.
