ROMA STORE SALE TUESDAY DECEMBER 17
1937 HEAD SOLD YESTERDAY, WITH STONG SUPPORT FROM BACKGROUNDERS.
YEARLING STEERS C2 SCORE
UNDER 200 KGS SOLD TO 518 TO AVERAGE 443
200 TO 280 KGS SOLD TO 518 TO AVERAGE 425 OR $1051
280 TO 330 KGS SOLD TO 480 TO AVERAGE 428
330 TO 400 KGS SOLD TO 434 TO AVERAGE 380
OVER 400 KGS SOLD AT 397
YEARLING HEIFERS C2 SCORE
200 TO 280 KGS SOLD TO 370 TRO AVERAGE 321
280 TO 330 KGS SOLD TO 360 TOI AVERAGE 337
330 TO 400 KGS SOLD TO 380 TO AVERAGE 344
COWS OVER 520 KGS
D3 COWS SOLD AT 284 OR $1705
THIS IS CHARLES WEYMAN JONES IN ROMA, WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.
Revealed: Australia’s most remarkable farm sales in 2024
Rural property prices might have come off the boil in some states, but it has still been another big year for farm sales across the nation.
From the biggest, the most expensive and what Rural Press property writers consider the most important, we look back at another year of astonishing farm offers and sales in Queensland & NSW
Queensland.
A subsidiary of the US-headquartered Mormon Church bought the major Border Rivers region property Worral Creek on a walk in, walk out basis for a figure understood to be well above $350 million.
The 26,855-hectare (66,360 acre) aggregation between Talwood and Mungindi was offered by Robert and Jennie Reardon and bought by Alkira Farms, a subsidiary of the Mormon Church-owned Farmland Reserve, and will be run by Solterra with the support of Australian asset manager Warakirri.
The seven properties have a combined 65,900 megalitres in water allocations supporting 7510ha (18,558 acres) of irrigation plus 6720ha (15,494 acres) of dryland farming.
The late Ray Scott’s 107,503ha (265,532 acre) Queensland cattle empire was offered to the market in May.
The Ray Scott Pastoral Company properties stretched from St George in the south to Charters Towers in the north.
Five of seven Ray Scott Portfolio properties in Central Queensland sold for a combined $110m on the Elders auction day in October, with later sales bringing the total to about $150m.
The purchase of the 352,500ha (871,046 acre) Lake Eyre Basin property Vergemont Station by the Queensland Government made headlines as the state’s largest environmental land acquisition.
Located south of Winton and west of Longreach, the $50m purchase price included a $21m contribution from The Nature Conservancy.
New South Wales
Premium 518ha (1280 acre) Namoi Valley irrigation farm Jungaburra sold at auction for a stunning $23.65 million in July.
Located on the Namoi River at Wee Waa, the property has 360ha (890 acres) of protected flood irrigation and 48ha (119 acres) of dryland cultivation.
Jungaburra holds 1888ML in river licences and a 408ML in groundwater licences.
Some of Australia’s most prized sheep stations were sold to US investors for $A780 million in September.
The famous Boonoke and Wanganella stations were among those listed for sale after the death of stockbroker Colin Bell.
The Australian Food and Agriculture Company held 18 properties in the Riverina and Central West NSW taking in 225,405ha (556,988 acres).
The properties carried more than 100,000 commercial and stud Merino sheep, plus 15,000 cattle.
The 1323ha (3269 acre) North West NSW grain growing property Mallanganee sold at auction in April for $15 million – equal to about $11,338/ha ($4589/acre).
Located in the Gurley district 35km south east of Moree and offered by the Estate of Doug Chick, the property has about 1065ha (2632 acres) of highly productive arable country.
Dramatic plunge in wool production.
Australian wool production is expected to decrease drastically this season, falling to levels not seen in a century.
According to the latest Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee forecast, shorn wool production for 2024/25 will be 279.4 million kilograms greasy, 12 per cent down on the previous season’s forecast.
The number of sheep shorn is also expected to fall 11.7pc to 63.2 million.
According to Australian Wool Exchange data, it would be the lowest level of shorn wool production seen since the 1923/24 wool season, when 267.9m kilograms was produced.
The shorn wool production was revised down by 6m kilograms from the August 2024 forecast, as tough overall conditions and a depressed market have continued to take their toll on the Australian wool industry.
Labor approves 20 renewable projects, Forrest and BP win big in taxpayer tender
Nineteen large-scale renewable energy infrastructure projects will be built across four states after winning approval in the first taxpayer-funded Capacity Investment Scheme auction.
The projects are expected to add 6.4 gigawatts of solar and wind energy and 3.5GW hours of battery energy storage to the National Electricity Market by around 2028.
NSW and Victoria will each host seven of the successful CIS projects in Australia’s largest renewable energy tender process so far, while three will be constructed in Queensland and two in South Australia.
The successful bids included Squadron Energy’s huge $2 billion, 700 megawatt Spicers Creek wind and big battery project, near Wellington in the central west of NSW. he Andrew Forrest-owned company changed several key design aspects after dozens of submissions were lodged against it going ahead.
