ONE of the South East’s most iconic agricultural properties will be listed for public sale for the first time in its near-200 year history with a price tag of around $50m.
Considered the jewel in the Limestone Coast’s agricultural market, the Mount Schanck estate will be offered on the open market.
The prominent property – 13km south of Mount Gambier – totals 2870ha, including nearly 5000 megalitres of ground water entitlement.
Mount Schanck was purchased in 2005 for the Evans Family by the late Ron Evans AM, former chairman of the AFL, president of the Essendon Football Club and managing director of Spotless Group.
The property was secured in an off-market deal from the Clarke family, who had owned Mount Schanck for more than 140 years, having purchased the property from the Arthur brothers of Van Diemans Land in 1861.
CBRE Group’s Danny Thomas and Phil Schell have been appointed to conduct the sale via a forthcoming international expressions of interest campaign.
“Mount Schanck is an iconic investment-scale asset,” Mr Thomas said.
“It is incredibly rare for landholdings of this scale that have such a unique position in the history of Australian agriculture to be presented to the market and to that end Mount Schanck is now being offered publicly for sale for the first time ever, having been owned by only three families.”
Mr Thomas said he was excited to be publicly listing such a unique historic sheep and cattle station in the Limestone Coast.
“My phone has been running hot even though it has yet to be publicly put on sale,” he told The Border Watch.
The property is being offered for sale on a walk-in-walk-out basis inclusive of more than 2000 Angus cows with calves from Rennylea, TeMania and Landfall bloodlines and heifer replacements, along with around 2500 composite ewes with lambs at foot.
About 700ha of Mount Schanck has been developed to centre pivot irrigation, utilised variously for lucerne-based pastures, fodder cropping and hay production, with occasional third-party use short-term leases for potatoes and other cash crops.
Operational improvements comprise a stately four-bedroom, circa 1864 homestead set within manicured gardens, in addition to numerous additional high-quality staff residences, a circa 1875, six-stand shearing shed, shearer’s quarters and “as new” Pratley sheep and cattle yards.
“The property features a combination of extensively developed improvements, high quality soil types, excellent climatic characteristics and outstanding operational infrastructure,” Mr Thomas said.
“The substantial ground water entitlement of almost 5000 megalitres offers the opportunity to undertake significant further development of the property, including conversion to alternative uses such as irrigated cropping or dairy.”
Although based near Mount Schank, the property name is spelled differently to the South East landmark.
