The recent $20 million sale of Mt Elephant Station in Victoria's western districts was a clear sign that the fundamentals underpinning investment in Australian agricultural land had not shifted because of the global financial crisis, according to Piper Alderman Agribusiness head Simon Venus.
Mr Venus said that the firm’s agribusiness group had acted for the purchaser of Mt Elephant Station, a landmark holding near Derrinallum in Victoria, for the last 10 years on building a portfolio of agricultural assets across Australia to compliment their global farming operations.
Mt Elephant Station is reportedly the largest value rural property sale in Victoria since 2008.
The vendor is the Melbourne-based Ballieu family.
The well-watered, 3310 hectare property represents some of the best agricultural land in the State and has been farmed with a mix of stud and commercial livestock and cereal production.
The property was purchased on a walk-in-walk-out basis.
Mr Venus said his client was an experienced investor in agricultural land and agribusinesses across the world and had taken an "educated, long-term view on opportunities in the agribusiness sector”.
He said this included broadacre farming, horticultural, orchard and livestock operations in places as diverse as California, Romania, New Zealand and Argentina.
