Blue Hills, near Binda in NSW’s Southern Tablelands, is just under three hours’ drive from Sydney.

Farm sells for $3.8 million after 220 inquiries in three days

Nick Lenaghan|Oct 05, 2021

Conexus Financial founder Colin Tate AM has found a haven in NSW’s Southern Tablelands, a locale long favoured by Sydneysiders serious about their farming, putting his foot on a grazing property near Binda in a $3.8 million deal.

Mr Tate and husband Matthew Fatches acquired the 491-hectare Blue Hills property on Sylvia Vale Road from the Hosers, Philip and Tessa, two formerly high-powered corporate lawyers who turned their hands to novel writing and pottery respectively along with cattle breeding, buying the property in early 2015 for $1.125 million, records show.

Since then, the Hosers worked hard on improving Blue Hills, which has capacity for a 200-head Angus herd, along with the infrastructure needed support a grazing enterprise: a three-stand wool shed, sheep yards, cattle yards, machinery shed, hay shed, stables and studio. Blue Hills is well-watered, with high rainfall, frontage to the Crookwell River and two creeks.

Looking out over the rolling hills is a fully renovated six-bedroom homestead and cottage, surrounded by established gardens. An in-ground pool and pool house complete the picture.

All that was music to the ears of Mr Tate and Mr Fatches, who had spent the last two years scouring the state for a suitable working farm.

Mr Tate is not only the founder and chief executive of Conexus Financial, a publisher, events organiser and think tank for institutional investors and super funds, he is just as busy with philanthropic activity, most recently taking up as chairman of Neuroscience Research Australia’s Foundation Board.

Mr Tate’s service to the community was recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.

“We’ve been looking for a couple of years for an agricultural property where we can run a cattle breeding program and actually make money.

“We were also conscious that it needed to be a sensible distance from Sydney and from our beach house in the Illawarra,” Mr Tate told The Australian Financial Review.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, Mr Tate had typically made monthly visits to London and New York to drive Conexus Financial’s international growth.

But he expects the COVID-19 crisis will prompt many business leaders to both rationalise the extent of their travel and recognise their need for “a healthier life, mentally and physically”.

“That includes having environments that are calming and beautiful and a lot less movement and more of use of digital communication,” he said.

Brokered by LAWD’s Col Medway and Tim Corcoran, Blue Hills sold well ahead the October 14 closing date for expressions of interest, after 220 enquires were lodged within three days of it hitting the market.

Interest came from both local farmer looking to expand their operations amid soaring prospects for Australia’s agricultural sector as well metropolitan buyers looking to get set in the Southern Tablelands, which offers more farming scale than the Southern Highlands, Mr Medway said.

“It is within that three-hour range of Sydney. With the Southern Tablelands, it is the best road out of Sydney.”