Deddick Springs, Tom Ventry's Cabanandra Campdraft cattle property for sale
Deddick Springs, the 3,100 acre home of the Cabanandra Campdraft, a celebration of horsemanship in the East Gippsland high country, has been listed for sale at $850,000.
Tommy Ventry was 10 when his father first taught him how to herd cattle, the youngest of three boys.
He learnt how to predict and cater for the movements of the cattle - and is now regarded as one of the last experienced cattlemen in Australia.
Ventry has hosted the Campdraft at his 1,252 hectare home for two decades, donating profits from the three-day event to local community halls, fire brigades and ill friends.
Sometimes Ventry and mates drove 860 borrowed cattle used in the competition through the Snowy Mountain high country, along a route that has been used to drive cattle for the past 100 years or so.
Elders Orbost agent James Leatham says the legendary drover is retiring. There is a family link as Jim Leatham was James' grandfather who droved with Tommy's father, Percy.
The property is situated one hour from Delegate and 2.5 hours from Bairnsdale.
Some 2000 acres is of cleared land subdivided into 20 paddocks, the rest is bush at 4433 McKillops Road, Deddick via Bonang.
Accommodation Creek runs through the property which comes with 40 ton silo, 3 stand shearing shed with sheep yards, two sets of camp draft cattle yards, stables, hay shed, arena.
It is able to carry 200 head of cattle or 4,000 sheep.
The annual Cabanandra Camp Draft is held on this property early April catering for up to 800 people with functions building consisting of kitchen, meals area, bar, shower, toilet blocks suitable for camping.
It has tourism potential for farm stay camping.
The next camperdraft is after Easter this year.
The Ventry family have had a long association with the Southern Campdrafting Association which dates from a small beginning 40 or so years ago, when a group of campdrafters and supporters got together and held a meeting in early March 1973 at Tumut with the aim to provide Insurance cover to its riders.
Its membership grew strongly from 46 members in 1973 to over 1,400 full members and 371 draft permit holders in 2013-14 season.
The number of clubs has fluctuated over the 40 years with eight clubs in 1973 to 46 clubs covering a large area from Port Augusta in South Australia to Broken Hill in the North West NSW down to West Wyalong in central west and onto the NSW Coast and southern NSW as well as most of Victoria.