Ingleby buys Symmons Plains

Ingleby, the Denmark-based worldwide group headed by Hans Henrik Koefoed that acquires farms, has paid $10 million for the Tasmanian pastoral farm Symmons Plains.

It was sold by the Youl family, who had resided at the property since the 1820s. The Georgian house dates back to 1839. The property's vendors were Tasmanian tennis player Andrew Youl and his wife, Audrey, a former Tasmanian Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist swimmer.

In 1960, racing car driver John Youl provided the nearby land for the development of the Symmons Plains Raceway, which now hosts V8 Supercars.

Harcourts Rural agent Michael Warren sold Symmons Plains, with rumours subsequently spreading its buyer was novelist J.K. Rowling.

“There’s certainly plenty of urban myth regarding the sale,” one local agent says.

It was the fourth major property purchased by Clovelly Tasmania Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Ingleby. The group bought its first Tasmanian property in 2005, which was the 1,800-hectare Bridport property Bowood, for $7.75 million through Roberts agent Peter Stackhouse. Bowood dates from 1838 and had only been sold once before, in 1933.

The company also has properties at Gladstone and Tomahawk.

Under manager Stephen Creese the company breeds livestock and grows potatoes.

Ingleby manages 11 farms in Australia totalling more than 16,000 hectares across four states.

Its daily operation are run by local farm managers.

With farms also in Argentina, New Zealand, Romania, Uraguay and the US, Ingleby employs 180 people worldwide. 

Creese is also connected with Mercer Creese Farming, which offers structured arrangements to suit the landowner, whether it is farm business tenancies, joint ventures or contract farming.

Roger Mercer and Stephen Creese formed a farming partnership in 2008 to invest in the ownership and development of farms in Australia.