Deltroit Station, Gundagai NSW

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The iconic Deltroit Homestead (circa. 1903) Wagga Wagga – Gundagai – South West Slopes NSW
XAVIER DUFF, The Weekly Times
July 28, 2016 11:34am
ONE of Australia’s biggest landholders has added to its extensive portfolio with the purchase of the leading beef cattle operation Deltroit Station at Gundagai.

• MH Premium Farms, owned by British-Australian businessman Sir Michael Hintze, bought the productive 2573ha property for a price believed to be between $16 million and $19 million from Australian Pastoral Group.
• The sale signals the end of the short-lived reign of APG run by former Macquarie executive Alan Hayes, which owned Deltroit Station along with two other properties in Queensland the 143,000ha Neumayer Valley and the 5,902ha Kinbeachie. All three have now been sold.
• APG was founded in 2012 with the backing of four major institutional investors and bought Deltroit Station in 2013 reportedly for $15.5 million.

MH Premium Farms now owns 10 large mixed grazing and cropping properties in NSW and Queensland.

• Deltroit Station is widely regarded as one of the premier pastoral holdings on the eastern seaboard of Australia.
• “Deltroit Station has always been regarded as one of the finest properties in eastern Australia,” Chris Meares says.

The newly formed Australian Pastoral Group, set up by former Macquarie Pastoral Services managing director Alan Hayes, had bought Deltroit Station at Wagga Wagga, for $15.5 million million from the former Lumley Insurance chairman Anthony Crichton-Brown.

• The 2,545 hectare station, with a capacity for 30,000 dry sheep, was passed in on a vendor bid at its December 2011 auction at $15 million, at the lower end of its $15 million to $18 million expectations.
• While the bush telegraph news of its sale since just before Christmas 2012, the official price has only just become known.
• The property holds an illustrious reputation as an agricultural powerhouse due to its scale, versatility and overall quality.
• Deltroit Homestead (circa. 1903) was completely renovated in 2000 with all period Federation features sympathetically retained.

• The refurbishment of the Homestead has been completed to exacting standards.
• Features include marble fireplaces, large central hallway, formal entrance, billiard room, study, wide verandahs, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and large modern open plan kitchen/living area. In-ground swimming pool.
• All-weather tennis court. Stables and dressage arena.

Set east of Wagga Wagga in Mundarlo, midway between Sydney (409 kilometres) and Melbourne (474 kilometres), it comes with a 1903 Federation brick homestead designed by Sydney architect William Nixon along with a stone-built, modernised four-bedroom Cobb and Co. coaching inn, The Junction Hotel.

Deltroit was established in the 1860s when settled by free English migrant William Richardson, originally part of the famous run of nearby Yabtree.

• Three generations of the Richardson family developed Deltroit over 100 years, creating a commercial Shorthorn herd and fine wool Merino flock.
• In 1963 Robert Kleberg, president of US company King Ranch, who had long coveted the Deltroit Shorthorn that had won worldwide acclaim, purchased Deltroit and its entire herd for internationally renowned King Ranch Group. With the death of Kleberg, King Ranch sold all its Australian properties, including Deltroit, in the late 1970s. The property last traded in 1990.
• With the death of Kleberg, King Ranch sold all its Australian properties, including Deltroit, in the late 1970s.
  
• It was listed in early 1977 by King Ranch with a $1,185,000 asking price, but didn’t sell. Later in 1977 at an auction at Romano’s Hotel at Wagga Wagga, the buyers were offered extended settlement terms with the balance over four years with interest at 9.5%.
• The listing agents were Pitt, Son & Badgery in conjunction with Griffiths, King & Rice of Melbourne. It was quickly relisted in 1978 by Ron Finemore and Kevin McMahon, this time with the auction at Wagga’s Commercial Club, when it sold at $890,000 to Tom Barr-Smith, reflecting $372 a hectare.
• The property last traded in 1990. The property has a significant coverage of shade timber, including yellow and white box, kurrajong and wattle. About 130,000 natives have been planted and established since 1992.

• Alan Hayes was responsible for identifying, selecting, aggregating and operating properties for the Prudential/Colonial/Commonwealth Bank Pastoral Fund from 1989-2001, and for the Macquarie Pastoral Fund from 2006-2009.
• Airstrip: 1250m private airstrip
  Farm Accommodation:
  
  – Original Stables and Coach house – fully refurbished.
  
  – Manager’s house – modern 5 bm home
  
  – Overseer’s house – original 4 bm stone house.

• A stone-built, modernised four-bedroom Cobb & Co. coaching inn, The Junction Hotel, dating from 1868 stands on Deltroit’s western boundary, along the Old Hume Highway, formerly the Port Phillip Road.
  
• Built by John Griffiths, a free settler from England who came to Australia in the Gold Rush, the hotel closed in 1916 and has been used as accommodation for Deltroit employees
  

References:

Property Observer

• http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/location/rural/21143-detroit-station-sells-to-newly-formed-australian-pastoral-group.html
• http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/location/rural/14280-deltroit-station-at-wagga-wagga-listed-for-sale.html

Deltroit Station, near Wagga Wagga, is part of the portfolio up for sale from ​Australian Pastoral Group.

Deltroit Station, near Wagga Wagga, is part of the portfolio up for sale from ​Australian Pastoral Group.

• Sale listing: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-other-nsw-gundagai-7813462
  http://www.inglisproperty.com.au/1P0030
• Articles:
• http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/property/leading-beef-property-deltroit-station-at-gundagai-sold-to-mh-premium-farms/news-story/8754ebaf545e59bffe98c108a9c74367
• http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/prized-deltroit-station-on-the-market–again/news-story/8a20d2566c2eb65f97204635c02f4ae8
• http://www.afr.com/real-estate/australian-pastoral-group-selling-rural-property-gems-including-deltroit-station-20160323-gnpdzc#ixzz4G4V6h4Lr