September 14, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Muttaba Station had been owned by business partners Ken Harris and Ron Greentree as part of their Greentree Farming partnership. However, plans developed in 2017 to dissolve the partnership and Muttama was listed for sale in November of that year as the pair worked to split the remaining assets. 

By December 2019, records indicated that Ron Greentree gained sole ownership of Muttama when his private company Prime Grain acquired the half interest owned by Harris’ company Limthono Pty Ltd.

At the time, the property transferred for a null amount, and its unimproved value stood at A$16.3 million.

Today, the 12,500-hectare (30,888-acre) Muttama in the Western Plains of New South Wales has been listed for sale by Greentree, with the sale being managed by Alexander Bailey and Paul Kelly of Moree Real Estate.

The cropping and grazing property consists of 10,600 hectares (26,193 acres) of arable land planted for a winter crop, with the balance being dedicated to grazing. Muttama also includes a feedlot with a capacity for 5,000 head, two grain sheds, 16 silos, two cattle yards, and a four-bedroom homestead, three cottages, and a 1000-meter airstrip. 

This listing follows six years after the partners listed the 47,500-hectare (117,373-acre) Milton Downs and Boolcarrol aggregation for sale with an estimated value of A$200 million. So far, a 10,000-hectare (24,710-acre) parcel was broken off of the aggregation and sold to TIAA’s Westchester for approximately A$50 million. 

To-date, no other portions of Boolcarrol or Milton Downs have been sold. But, Richard Gemmell, agent with Elders Dubbo, noted that most of the sales that happened in the Central or Central West regions of New South Wales fetched prices that were either record, or near-record amounts, according to the 2020 Rural Bank Farmland report. 

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.