Irrigation is a feature of the Murray River Land Trust Portfolio, which covers 15,000ha in northern Victoria and southern NSW. Photo: LAWD

INVESTORS keen to get into irrigated farming in northern Victoria and southern NSW have the ideal opportunity with the listing of the Murray River Land Trust Portfolio through LAWD and Map19.

Put together by big-ticket property agent Danny Thomas working with Western Australia’s John Nicoletti, it is operated by the Ulupna Pastoral Company (UPC), and covers 15,000 hectares.

Centred in the Strathmerton district, the portfolio takes in country as far north as Finley in New South Wales, and in Victoria runs south to the Nathalia and Numurkah districts, and east to Cobram.

It represents a transformational land use for what has traditional been grazing and dairying country.

The portfolio has brought together numerous properties which have undergone soil amelioration and irrigation redesign to improve efficiency and modernise land-management techniques.

Livestock are also seen as part of the portfolio’s future, with some infrastructure being repurposed to enable backgrounding and finishing of beef cattle and prime lambs for branded meat programs.

Water a feature

The portfolio has an annual water allocation of 20,000 megalitres.

This comes from deep and shallow bores and high-security surface water delivered direct from the River Murray, and from a regulated network of channels on both sides of the NSW-Victorian border.

UPC is in the process of planting the 2021 winter crop, which includes 4000ha of canola, and 4000ha in total of cereals and other crops.

Grain Central understands the property’s owners are now seeking a capital injection for the next stage of the project.

This includes the building of water storages to hold up to half its annual water allocation, plus installation of lateral-move and centre-pivot irrigators.

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