Moulamein graziers put $25 million holding up for sale

The Shippens – Ian and Camilla – finished up with the southern end of the aggregation made up of 10 titles totalling 1400ha.

Offers for the property are expected to reach $17,296-$18,532 per hectare ($7000-$7500 an acre), or more than $24.5 million in total.

It had been their second significant foray into the Victorian market – in 2018 they paid more than $35 million for the 59,000ha Mt Fyans, purchased from Western Australian-based, Chinese-backed company Harmony Agriculture and Food Company. It was previously the seat of Keith and Rosie Rous, the Earl and Countess of Stradbroke.

Last year the family further expanded their landholdings when they paid $16 million at auction for the 9900ha Rhyola and Inverness pastoral aggregation near Deniliquin.

As well as their wool enterprise at Moulamein, the Shippens also have a crossbred program at Wagga Wagga.

Elders Real Estate Mortlake and Camperdown’s Rob Rickard is handling the sale of the Woorndoo East farms and he describes it as an incredibly versatile property.

“Since they took possession, the current owners have continued maximising the property’s intensive development as high yielding cropping country which also lends itself to sheep, cattle and fodder conservation”.

“The Woorndoo property comprises basalt clay loam soils with gently undulating topography, and land sloping and drained towards the seasonal creek and catchment dams,” Rob says.

“Raised beds (3m in width) have also been established to improve overall drainage and maximise the winter cropping program,” he says.

“Improvements include a four-bedroom brick veneer home, hay and machinery shedding, three-stand shearing shed and yards as well as excellent fencing, dam and bore water and 5.5km of bitumen road frontage are also part of the property.”

Based at Moulamein in the NSW Riverina, the Shippens primarily produce between 3500 and 3800 bales of wool a year, from about 75,000 Merino ewes, up to 15,000 Merino wethers and 10,000 crossbred ewes.

They have said they are listing the Woorndoo property as part of their ongoing portfolio restructure.

The Shippens, and their children Will, Emma and James, made the headlines for another reason at the height of the 2022 floods when they turned to a trial use of seven AWI modular sheep delivery units after thousands of their sheep were stranded by rising water.

The family’s Banyandah Pastoral Company’s huge self-replacing Merino operation across 105,000ha – most of it at Moulamein, where the average annual rainfall is 330mm – saw more than half its usual shearing sheds out of action.

Terrible timing, with the gigantic annual task of shearing 55,000 grown sheep and 40,000 lambs having only recently begun.

Ian says his dire situation was helped enormously when AWI organised for five modular sheep delivery units owned by AWI, and two more owned by Haynes Engineering, to be made available for him to use.

“AWI got some modular shearing units delivered to us at one of our places that wasn’t too badly affected by floodwater. We turned an existing hay shed, sized about 30m x 18m, into a shearing shed with a set of yards in about three weeks. We cemented the floor and put in seven modular shearing units which worked really well.”

The size of the existing hay shed meant that the seven modular units were configured into an ‘L’ shape, with a fabricator creating a corner to allow the sheep to flow.

The Shippens put approximately 15-20,000 sheep through the system and have confirmed their intention to purchase the modular units as they had a fully operational shed at a fraction of the cost of other designs.