A prime slice of Coonamble mixed farming country - and pastoral history - is in play following the listing of the Beanbah/Edale aggregation for sale by expressions of interest.
Elders has listed the 2678 hectare (6618 acres) aggregation as a whole or as separate contingent portions, Beanbah of 1271ha (3140ac) and the adjoining Edale of 1407ha (3478ac).
Situated 32 kilometres north of Coonamble, the aggregation comprises rich, level farming country of mostly heavy grey self-mulching soils with a band of lighter country on Edale.
The properties are owned by Charlie and Marg Beck, whose home property is Uralla, to the east of Coonamble, and are selling as part of a scaling-down process.
Edale has been in the family (formerly Marg's parents' family, the Tyms) for three generations.
Beanbah was added in 2005, when it was bought at auction for a then district record price of $500/acre ($202/hectare).
It was marketed then as Beanbah Homestead, being the homestead block of the 2488ha Beanbah then being offloaded by the local Scott butchering family, who had bought it at a subdivision sale in 1979.
The Scotts' Beanbah was in turn just the homestead portion of the original 11000ha Beanbah Station which the Killen family-controlled Marra Developments had bought in 1950 from the Angliss meat group.
Under the Marra ownership, Beanbah had been combined with two adjoining properties, Thornydyke and Westmead, making an aggregation of 18000ha.
This was the package that went to auction in 1979 as a subdivision of 11 blocks as part of the wind-up of the Scottish Australian Company, with which Marra had merged in 1974.
Under Marra ownership, Beanbah was managed mainly as a sheep breeding operation, mating Merino ewes to Border Leicesters for a first-cross lamb, in conjunction with cattle breeding and fattening.
The Beanbah/Edale aggregation now for sale is managed as a typical mixed farming operation, growing winter crops in season alongside Merino sheep and Angus cattle.
An estimated 80 per cent of the Beanbah section is cultivation country and 60pc of Edale, with wheat typically yielding 1.8-2 tonnes/ha without added fertiliser.
This season a total 1435ha is under winter crops across the two blocks and showing excellent potential.
Crops are not included in the sale, but buyers will have until February 26 to settle.
In addition to cropping, the aggregation has typically run 100-200 head of cattle and 500 Merino ewes, and is now lightly stocked with 80 cows and calves, 270 ewes and 1000 weaners.
Average rainfall is 475mm and two separate bore schemes deliver stock water to the two properties, while the Mowlma Creek which traverses Beanbah provides seasonal water and beneficial flooding.
Beanbah comes with a five-bedroom, air-conditioned weatherboard homestead (now tenanted) which has served as a manager's residence through successive ownerships, and original station outbuildings.
Working structures, mostly centred on Edale, include a three-stand electric shearing shed with Clipex sheep yards, steel cattle yards with six-way draft, machinery sheds, 1000t grain shed and silos.
The original station woolshed went with the Beanbah South block when Scotts' Beanbah was sold in subdivision in 2005.
Expressions of interest for Beanbah/Edale close on September 18, with the offering already generating strong local and outside interest.
BY PETER AUSTIN.
