Green Triangle buyers asked to weigh up farm or forest options

The blocks are located in a border-crossing strip from Portland in Victoria to South Australia's Naracoorte.

They include almost 3000ha (7413 acres) of blue gum and pine plantations.

Plantations are popular again in the Green Triangle thanks to a huge investment from a German company.

Midway Ltd - which has been planting and managing plantations in the Otway region and Green Triangle for more than 40 years - is managing a farm buying program on behalf of MEAG, a subsidiary of the German-based fund manager Munich Re.

About a dozen properties have been acquired across the shire since the project started in October 2022, most of which were cattle and sheep grazing properties. Some were dairy farming operations.

Midway last year sold its existing 17,000ha plantation estate in south-west Victoria for $154 million to MEAG.

MEAG has also committed to invest a further $200 million for land purchases for the development of new hardwood plantations in southwest Victoria over the next five years, to be managed by Midway.

The move has alarmed some residents in the south-west.

Only in the past week, the Corangamite Shire Council directed its officers to calculate the cost of the farm buy-up and future impact on the local population.

Nutrien Harcourts are currently selling the Fairthorne Forestry and Rural Aggregation.

Agents have suggested to potential buyers the blocks could be harvested of their mature timber and potentially reverted back to pure play agriculture such as livestock grazing.

Reversion back to farmland can be a costly business after timber harvesting - stumps are ground down and tops burned. Then the land is limed and fertilised before it can be sown to pasture.

The Fairthorne's are Western Australian-based investors.

Agents say the aggregation will be sold as a whole, in regional clusters or split for individual sale.

The blocks offer opportunities for clear-felling to revert to agriculture or to continue with next next forestry rotation.

Agents said the plantation blocks offered a wide range of tree age class and two species, pine and blue gums.

Buyers also have the opportunity to buy blocks with trees or on some blocks with leaseback near harvest.

There is also the opportunity for buyers to consider the potential for carbon credits with their investment.

Agents said water licences were available for the two SA properties for forestry or potential irrigation.

The forestry blocks are for sale by expression of interest closing November 30.

For more information contact Adrian Smith from Nutrien Harcourts Ballarat on 0400 178945.