Hunter Valley farm Rockview for sale after 150 years in one family

After 150 years of ownership by the same family, a 322-hectare Hunter Valley property is up for sale.

Rockview has been run by five generations of the Deasy family.

It’s now the largest grazing property in the Pokolbin area.

It’s the first time the Deasys Road land has been marketed since Jeremiah Deasy hopped off a boat from Ireland and took ownership of the property in the days of selection in the 1860s.

In subsequent years the property was used as a fruit bottling company called Lighting, which was run from the back sheds of the property by indentured, orphaned labourers. The remnants of this bottling plant still remain.

At one point a school was built on the property.

The bodies of children who died at the property over the years are buried in the property in an area called The Cultivation.

The property is a cattle grazing property but given its location in the Hunter Valley it does come with a vineyard.

In a grove of fig trees sits the original timber homestead, which is currently used as a weekend getaway for the Malouf and Quinn families – descendants of the Deasy family.

The well-grassed rolling hills of Rockview are only interrupted by a patch of eucalyptus trees.

The farm is equipped with cattle yards and water from a number of dams. An allocation is available from the Lower Hunter Wine Country Private Irrigation district.

The property is being marketed to investors and developers with council approval to subdivide into eight 40-hectare lots.

The property’s zoning allows for resorts, wineries and restaurants.

Agent Alan Jurd from Jurd's Real Estate Cessnock has hopes of more than $5 million, with expressions of interest due April.