Elimatta at Walgett sold last week to set a new district record. Photo: Moree Real Estate

NORTHERN New South Wales dryland cropping property Elimatta has sold for $10.1 million at auction on Friday setting a new price record for the Walgett district.

The 2601-hectare property located 50-kilometres southwest of Walgett went to a New South Wales-based buyer who was originally from the area.

Moree Real Estate agents Sandy Bailey and Paul Kelly handled the transaction in conjunction with Kelly’s Property Sales agent Dianne Kelly.

The sale price equates to $3883/ha, which Mr Bailey said was a “very strong” result for the vendors, the Taunton family, based in the Moree-Mallawa area.

“It was a good auction and a fantastic result,” Mr Bailey said.

“We had a good turn-out…we had five registered bidders and it was a strong auction.

“It was well above previous sales in the area…it definitely set a new price record.”

Ms Kelly said the result was testament to the quality of the soils in the area.

“Absolutely beautiful dirt…and just a really nice farming block,” Ms Kelly said.

“It did exceed our expectations by quite a bit.”

She said the Walgett district was “very tightly held” and this sort of opportunity did not come up very often.

“There has been nothing like this farming block sold recently.

“It is not like we have 10 properties for sale; [Walgett] is a very strong district.”

Mr Bailey said while the one sale will not serve to raise the average price, the outcome would create added interest in the district.

“It was a really, really good piece of country; (it) had good soils and it has just been the right couple of seasons out there, so everyone is fairly active.

“It is going to have a positive effect on values; there will need to be a few more sales probably to get the average to where that one ended up.”

Elimatta originally came to market in March this year with an earlier auction date, but the listing was pushed back due to wet weather and flooding in the area.

Ms Kelly said thankfully this change in date had little impact on the final result.

“We had so much rain, which was beautiful, but we just couldn’t get out to do inspections which is why we postponed the auction.

“The people who had inquired and requested information, we contacted them to let them know and they totally understood.”

Alongside producing winter crops such as wheat, chickpeas and canola, Elimatta may be suited to summer cropping, and has run cattle also when seasons allow.

Marshmead Aggregation was the latest large-scale cropping property to sell in the Walgett district.

The 12,343ha holding sold to two local farming families in November 2021.

It is believed to have sold for around $2250/ha.

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