The Staywood Park Homestead and land. Source – CBRE.

SALE of the renowned Rossander Portfolio properties north of the south-west Victorian seaside city Warrnambool is being finalised at $35-$40 million, the selling agents CBRE Agribusiness confirmed this week.

The unique sale of the 955.15 hectare city-fringe aggregation on behalf of the estate of Rossander Properties Pty Ltd was held by expressions of interest that closed on 29 June 2022 for the entire portfolio or up to ten separate properties.

CBRE said the realization of the renowned properties is nearing finalization after having been sold in 12 attractive parcels of quality grazing land.

“The portfolio realized values in accord with our expectations of between $35-40 million,” CBRE director Shane McIntyre said.

Mr McIntyre marketed the property with CBRE director Matt Childs and CBRE managing director David Goodfellow. They fielded strong interest from neighbouring farmers, home makers and investors.

“Buyers were both local and state-wide, who respected the proximity of the assets being so close to the City of Warrnambool,” Mr McIntyre said.

Some of the Rossander Angus herd. Source – CBRE.

Mr Childs said many of the properties possess elevated building sites overlooking the city, with most being only five minutes from the city fringe, “providing a rural lifestyle with city convenience.”

Mr Goodfellow said the level of interest in the portfolio was “astounding” with more than 60 expressions of interest ranging from eager neighbours wanting to expand their holdings to lifestyle buyers wanting a high quality near-city rural asset.

“The Rossander Portfolio was designed to give every potential purchaser the opportunity to participate in this unique offering,” he said.

The portfolio included a proposed 52 hectare 35-lot rural living development; the 299.5 hectare historic ‘Staywood Park’ property with its two-storey five bedroom homestead; the 131ha 300-cow ‘Dundonald’ dairy farm, and; the 68ha ‘Tullynagee’ holding with its four bedroom Victorian/Edwardian-style homestead.

The property’s key features were listed as including land banking and subdivision benefits; existing mixed-farming enterprise comprising dairy cattle and beef cattle operations with well-established pastures, fencing, water supplies and farming amenities; diverse alternative primary production land use development options, including wool production, horticulture and viticulture, and; possible access to significant underground water supply via the Dilwyn Aquifer.

A Rossander property overview. Source – CBRE.

Mr Childs said the property offering and sale was unique and big in terms of its history, scale, proximity to Warrnambool and ultimate result.

“It was just a massive job – to offer it the way we did created a lot more work, as opposed to trying to sell it as just one property.

“It never would have realised that value selling it as one piece,” he said.

“There was a good range of broadacre land, with Staywood Park as the biggest piece, 740 acres of an historic estate beef operation, a dairy farm, down to lifestyle, whether it’s ‘Fala Park’ an old historic house on 50 acres on the Merri River or a smaller 15 acre block of land for someone to build their dream home.

“There was a huge variance in the types of assets that has been offered which covered pretty much covered all bases.”

Former Rossander principal the late Andrew Anderson ran his well-known Rossander Angus stud from the properties for many years and he was a prominent community and educational philanthropist.

The Tullynagee Homestead. Source – CBRE