Cowal Agriculture, which is affiliated with the US-based Global Endowment Management, has sold its nearly 6000 hectares of irrigated country near Emerald in Queensland’s Central Highlands region. Selling agent Danny Thomas from Land Agribusiness Water and Development said it was sold to an Australian institution for in excess of $120 million.
“We had a lot of institutional interest in the property,” he said.
Cowal Agriculture produces high yielding summer and winter crops including; cotton, mungbean, sorghum, chickpeas and wheat.
The property has been extensively developed for irrigation including 3500 hectares of row crop, 270 hectares of bankless channel crop and 144 hectares of centre pivot irrigation with the balance comprising dryland cropping and grazing/support land.
Cowal Agriculture has extensive water holdings of 27,157 megalitres of Medium Priority water, 4,648 megalitres of unsupplemented water.
Plus it has on-farm storage that can hold 8000 megalitres of water and 12 kilometres of frontage to the Nogoa River.
Mr Thomas said there’s potential to further develop portions of the land to bankless channel and centre pivot irrigation.
In an article in The Australian earlier this year Cowal Agriculture was listed as the second biggest rural deal to watch in 2022, second to the 1.32 million hectare Walhallow and Amungee Mungee stations, which is listed for sale for $230 million.
The property was first listed for sale in November but unfortunately the sale fell over. It was re-listed and Mr Thomas said there were three parties vying for the property in the end.
“It was highly sought after and hotly contested,” he said.
Mr Thomas said the strong interest shows the continued value and strong investment in Australian agriculture.
“I think the market remains just as competitive as it was. There’s been no downturn that I’ve seen. Most assets we could sell many times over,” he said.
“People keep saying surely it’s topped out, it’s peaked but we haven’t seen that yet,” Mr Thomas added.