History, location, climate and scale are among the key attributes of Courallie Park, a four-property aggregation now for sale on the North West Plains.
Courallie Park is an aggregation of 5120 hectares (12,646ac) at Bellata, put together over the past 20 years by former builder Ron Fernance and his wife Lynn.
Courallie Park is farmed now with their two sons Glenn and Mick.
The Fernances had previously owned country at Bingara.
When they sold that in 1999, the Fernances bought Boomerang, the 1748ha first component of the aggregation now for sale.
This was followed by the 934ha Albion Grove in about 2012.
Three years ago these were joined by the well-known Courallie Park of 1250ha and Irragappa of 1188ha.
These parcels form a rich portfolio of mixed farming country in one of the state's premier year-round farming regions.
It also has a rich history, Courallie Park itself having previously been held for well over a century by the Hann family.
The Hanns operated Courallie Park for more than 50 years as the illustrious Courallie Hereford and Poll Hereford studs.
Now it's all for sale, to allow for succession planning.
CBRE has been engaged to market the property jointly or severally by private treaty.
The aggregation has an all-up price tag of $24 million.
The aggregation in normal seasons is a production powerhouse, with 3965ha of the total area developed for dryland cropping.
This is alongside a grazing enterprise of 600 breeding cows with followers, and up to 1250 trading cattle.
Situated about 30 kilometres east of Bellata and overlooked by the Nandewar Range, the properties are all level to gently sloping with rich alluvial and red to black basalt soils and some lighter loams.
Average rainfall is 667mm and all four properties are well watered by bores reticulating to troughs, supplemented by seasonal creeks and dams.
Courallie Park itself has long been managed as a mixed farm, with cash and fodder crops grown - along with introduced pastures - to supplement the main cattle breeding enterprise.
Two fenced laneways connect all paddocks to the central cattle handling complex which includes the main yards, former sale barn and bull shed.
The three-bedroom weatherboard homestead is set in established grounds with mature trees.
It has family and formal living areas.
Other buildings include a cottage, three machinery sheds, a three-stand shearing shed and silos.
Albion Grove, situated one kilometre to the north, has a three-bedroom weatherboard home, a two-bedroom cottage, sheds and cattle yards.
Joining Albion Grove is Irragappa, which is nearly all developed for cropping.
It comes with fenced laneways, a four-bedroom Weathertex home, steel cattle yards and machinery shed.
About seven kilometres south of Courallie Park is the largest block, Boomerang, 415ha of which is timbered lease country.
The balance is mostly developed for farming, with a generous history of fertilising.
Improvements include a five-bedroom weatherboard home, steel cattle yards, machinery shed and a 600t grain shed (taking total grain storage across the four blocks to 3145t).
Rainfall for the year to date is dismal, in common with all the North West, totalling just 250mm.
Consequently no winter crop was harvested, and no summer crop is yet in the ground. But rain will come!
By PETER AUSTIN.