This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIA’S largest-ever cattle station deal has fallen through, and retail billionaire Brett Blundy is again hoping to find a buyer for the one-million-hectare Walhallow aggregation in the Northern Territory.
A Sydney-based fund manager was reported to have stumped up $250 million for the property last month but has failed to settle the contract. News Corp reports the prospective buyer was a fund connected to Sam Mitchell, managing director WealthCheck.
Walhallow comprises the 3,580 sq km Walhallow and 6,545 sq km Creswell Downs properties at the Barkly Tableland about 1,000 kilometres from Darwin.
Colliers Agribusiness has been managing the sale on a walk-in, walk-out basis including more than 61,000 head of Brahman cattle. Final bidding through the expressions of interest process is now due on October and all bids are currently over $200 million.
Blundy acquired Walhallow in 2015 for about $100 million from Paraway Pastoral.
For now, the record price paid for a single pastoral holding remains the $180 million-plus paid by Peter and Jane Hughes last year for the 438,000 hectare Miranda Downs in Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria.
The recent surge in prices has been driven prices of most major agricultural commodities hitting or near record highs. According to Rabobank, preliminary data shows growth of more than 25% in Australian agricultural land prices so far in 2022, following on from a 27% jump in prices per hectare in 2021.
Price growth is expected to slow down from next year, driven by a declining economic outlook, higher operating costs, and lower farm incomes, but no decline is expected in the foreseeable future.
