The Peel family has sold its historic New Merrigal pastoral holding north of Dubbo, in NSW, to a local producer working in the cotton industry.
The 6669-hectare central west property on the Collie-Bourbah Road near Collie was put up for sale in July as part of a wind-up of the agricultural assets of the family’s company, Peel New Merrigal Pty Ltd.
New Merrigal dates back to 1855 when it was taken up by John Christie of Narromine Station in partnership with early colonial figure and politician William Charles Wentworth.
For 40 years up until 1974 it was owned by the grazier David Pye until his death that year, and then acquired at auction by Len Peel, who alongside his brother, owned and operated the Hambledon Park dairy in North Richmond. Mr Peel died in 2016.
Neither the sale price of New Merrigal nor its new owner were disclosed by selling agents Mike Clifton, Rawdon Briggs and Jim Guilfoyle of Colliers International, at the request of the Peel family. However, the agents confirmed the property had sold.
Company records show New Merrigal Pastoral Pty Limited was registered in September and its sole shareholder is Anthony McAlary. Mr McAlary owns cotton farm Milawa near Warren, about 50 kilometres west of Collie.
New Merrigal was last valued on an unimproved basis at $7.8 million in July last year, according to information on research tool pricefinder.com.au.
The selling agents described the rural holding as a “once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a truly Blue-Chip agricultural asset combining quality, scale and reliability”.
“New Merrigal offers the astute Agri-investor all options including cropping, wool production, prime lambs and breeding, fattening or backgrounding cattle, it all comes down to personal choice,” the agents said.
More than two-thirds of New Merrigal is arable prime hard wheat country with the balance comprising soft open grazing and lightly timbered sheltered grazing country.
Last month the Peel family sold Clyde Cottage”, a mixed farming property in the Collie district for $3.35 million to neighbouring landholders, Gary and Jenny Wrigley of Meryon.
In September the Peel family put its prized 253-hectare Hambledon Park holding up for sale with a price tag of up to $140 million. The property has been pitched at developers, the tertiary education sector and agricultural industries.
Owned by the family since 1972, it was built into a 1200-head dairy farm but was more recently replaced with a breeding herd of about 300 Black angus cows.
The Peel family also sold two Queensland properties in 2016.
