This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
LOCAL grower Andrew Yates has acquired 4,784 hectares of mixed farmland in northern NSW for $33 million, bringing to a close 100 years of ownership by the Carrigan family.
Welbon, 19 kilometres from Garah, and 41 kilometres north of Moree, was taken to auction where three bidders pushed the value sky-high from the opening bid of $18 million.
The sale price represented a rate of almost $7,000 per hectare, a record for the Garah district.
Australian agricultural land prices are expected to see another year of double-digit growth, according to Rabobank, as farmland sale prices in the early months of 2023 continue to set new records.
Farming at Welbon has diversified to include summer crops such as cotton and sorghum as well as standard winter cereals of wheat, barley, durum, chickpeas, faba beans and canola. It can be used for sheep and cattle production and was recently was conservatively stocked with sheep, with shearing tallies reaching 8,500 head.
Soil types are predominantly soft black and grey clays with a few small box ridges, while country is mostly flat, grassed with Mitchell, bluegrass and native medics. Timber is mainly belah, brigalow, wilga, boonery and box, with some coolibah shading areas along the waterways.
There is a five-bedroom homestead built in 1928, while other improvements include a woolshed, sheepyards, sheds and grain storage.
Ray White Rural Moree’s Ed Wisemantel managed the sale.
The Yates family has a long and strong connection with the Garah district dating back to 1899, beginning with Andrew’s great-grandfather William and through to prominent grain grower Bill Yates, his late father.
The Carrigan family had held the property since 1923, when Alexander Carrigan bought the land and 8,000 sheep from Scottish Land Co. Vendors Chris and Helen Carrigan increased the property’s footprint with the purchase of neighbouring Duravale in 1985 and then part of Gilbunna three years later.
