Five local producers have purchased land parcels in the Arkana Cropping Aggregation, dryland cropping country in Victoria's northern Mallee region, for a combined total of nearly $13 million.
The Bridge family's 4,223ha aggregation in Panitya was listed for sale earlier this year for the first time the family having owned and operated a farm on the site since 1965.
The sale of parcels north of Bridge Road for prices in excess of $3,700/ha ($1,500/acre) set a new pricing benchmark for the well-regarded cropping region, with the average across the eight sites $3,060/ha ($1,240/acre).
Located 11 kilometres south-east of Pinnaroo in South Australia, the landholdings are suited to winter crops including wheat, barley, rye, peas, lentils, lupins and canola.
The buyers will have access to their lots as a licence to occupy for the new cropping season.
CBRE Agribusiness's Phil Schell and Angus Bills managed the sale on behalf of the Bridge family.
"The sale is a great result for the Bridge family, which is selling up after more than 50 years at the site," Mr Schell said.
"There was significant interest in the aggregation, with local producers keen to take advantage of the rare opportunity to expand their operations, along with corporate and institutional parties.
"That demand helped set a new pricing benchmark in Mallee for the better cropping land."
Improvements on the properties include a 1980's homestead, four-stand shearing shed, implement shed, sundry shedding and five equipped bores.
Soil types include red brown loam over clay and sandy loam over clay with small sections of limestone.
The properties have an average annual rainfall of 335 millimetres.
