Live export ban to trigger more tender offerings in cattle station market

Live export ban to trigger more tender offerings in cattle station market
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 8, 2020

Buyer’s market conditions prevailed for cattle station listings in the Northern Territory before the Federal Government’s recent decision to suspend live cattle exports to Indonesia in the wake of a Four Corners investigation that showed graphic animal cruelty and inhumane treatment.

It was evidenced by the sale of a smaller scale Katherine cattle station, Mathison Station, which sold after its recent auction for $2.2 million, according to valuers Herron Todd White.

Mathison is a 625-square-kilometre holding in a fairly underdeveloped state.

“Nevertheless, with frontage to the sealed Victoria Highway at around 100 kilometres from Katherine, this same property would have fetched a much higher price back in 2008-2009 when conditions were at their peak,” Herron Todd White valuer Frank Peacocke says.

The neighbouring 60,000-hectare Stapleton Station, also part of the former East Mathison, was passed in at the same auction. It is now listed at $3.7 million through Ray White Katherine agent Bernie Brosnan.

“Although there have been few sales in the northern half of the territory, each progressive sale has been marked with a pronounced drop in value, a direct response to the lack of competitive tension in the market,” Peacocke noted.

Peacocke points to the recent auction of Tanumbirini Station on the Carpentaria Highway at Daly Waters in the western half of the Gulf region as another test of the market.

The 5,001-square-kilometre station was passed in at $30 million late last month through Andrew Adcock at Ray White Rural.

Macquarie Pastoral's trading entity Paraway Pastoral was reputedly among the pre-auction inspectees, having accumulated 3 million hectares of land across Australia in recent years. It now has 200,000 cattle and 200,000 sheep under management.

AACo was not thought to be interested in Tanunbirini, as its current preference was to lease, rather than buy, grazing country.

Tanumbirini last sold in 2007 for $31 million on a walk in, walk out basis at about $1000 per beast area value (bare), according to HTW.

It was listed by cattle baron Sterling Buntine, whose personal fortune is estimated in the BRW rich list at $385 million. Buntine owns Bedford Dows near Halls Creek, and also recently purchased Amburla Station in Central Australia for about $6 million.

Tanumbirini, about 400km southeast of Katherine, is being sold with up to 30,000 head.

More than 90% of Top End cattle were exported live to Indonesia from Darwin. But Jakarta had slashed import quotas and slapped a maximum 350kg weight limit on the cattle before the current ban on live exports to the country.

In central Queensland the Comely and Mapala aggregation has been listed with an asking price of $35 million.

Its viewed as an iconic central Queensland cattle station, located south west of Moura and covering 23,159 hectares. It includes large areas of top-quality brigalow and softwood scrub country, with the reported capacity to run more than 12,000 young cattle.

The vendors are hoping to gain interest from national and international corporate interest.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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