Claravale pastoral lease and freehold title sold to Queensland businessmen

ABC NEWS 13/04/2021
NT Country Hour  / By Daniel Fitzgerald.

The Northern Territory’s Claravale pastoral lease and an adjoining freedhold block has sold for $8.5 million, to two Queensland businessmen involved in earthmoving and construction.

Key points

• Claravale pastoral lease and freehold portion sold for $8.5 million
• Queensland businessmen buy from well-known Pine Creek local
• Freehold land attracted interest from a range of local and interstate parties
• Top End Pastoral Company, owned by Michael Simmich and Clayton Coleman both from Dalby in Queensland’s Darling Downs, bought the property walk-in-walk-out with around 200 head of cattle.
• Claravale Station is a 61,380-hectare property south of Pine Creek, and its adjoining Claravale Farm is a 6,310-hectare freehold block that fronts the Daly River.
• The Northern Territory has very little freehold land, with most agricultural land classified as pastoral, on which no horticultural or broadacre farming can occur without government approval.

“With 6,000 hectares, 60 kilometres off the highway on a freehold parcel, it’s quite unique,” selling agent Alison Ross said.

Claravale Station’s homestead is about 20 kilometres from the Stuart Highway, south of Pine Creek. Ms Ross said the freehold title was attractive to a range of buyers.

“We initially listed the properties right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so naturally it was a majority of Australians interested,” she said.

“There was some foreign inquiry, foreigners who knew the Territory and the region, but in the end, there were several interested buyers from the Territory and interstate that were looking at the property.”

Top End Pastoral Company declined ABC Rural’s request for comment.

Claravale was sold by Eddie Ah Toy, a life-long resident of Pine Creek, whose family had owned the property for decades.

Mr Ah Toy’s father, alongside running a general store in Pine Creek, had grown crops on the freehold section of Claravale.

Cotton potential ‘firming up’ land sales

Interest in growing cotton in the Top End has slowly been growing over the last few years, and the industry was given a boost recently, with the announcement of a cotton gin to be built near Katherine.

Ms Ross said alongside high cattle prices, the potential for cotton has added confidence to the Top End real estate market.

Claravale Farm fronts the Daly River and overlies the Florina and Oolloo aquifers. “The announcement of a cotton gin has been favourable … I guess we are waiting for people to see that [cotton] to be seen as a proven success up here,” she said.

“But certainly you could say [interest in cotton] is firming up freehold prices.

“In terms of pastoral land we know there has been restrictions on non-pastoral land use agreements and land clearing.

“Now that we have that commitment from the government for a six-week turnaround to clear up to 1,000 hectares, that has certainly made it a lot easier for current owners to diversify and make more attractive for investors to come in.

“Prices have firmed up but that’s also due to the strong prices for live export, not just solely cotton