BURRAWANG West’s Graham and Jana Pickles are on the move.
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After 16 years, the couple, who run the famed black and white Dorper stud bearing the property’s name, have listed with Sam Triggs of Inglis Rural Property, Sydney.
“We're selling to focus on the stud side of the business,” Mr Pickles said.
Mr Inglis said the 4,673 hectare property (11,549 acre) at Ootha, near Condobolin, provided scale “rarely seen in some of Eastern Australia’s inner country”.
The scale has provided the Pickles with ample feed and space to run their stud and commercial sheep operations. They now run 6,000 stud and commercial ewes along with progeny.
“In recent years the price of lamb has been so good we’ve focused on growing fodder crops – in fact this year we planted 2500 acres of fodder as well as 450 acres of organic wheat,” Mr Pickle said.
Water was highly reliable, he said.
“We’re blessed with three creeks including the Bumbuggan Creek which is an anabranch of the Lachlan River and has never been dry since we have owned the property,” he said.
“We use 120 acres of centre pivot irrigation to finish 3000 lambs a year. After they’re done we can bale up to 300 tonnes of hay.”
Mr Pickles said there was opportunity to expand the cropping program. Further, the property was equally suited to a large scale intensive dairy operation or serve as a intensive commercial production hub for a retail supply chain or processing business.
The property originally formed part of the highly regarded ‘Big Burrawang’ pastoral company pioneered by Thomas Edols in the 1870’s. According to his obituary, the sheep shorn at Burrawang were “counted by hundreds of thousands” and there were “more sheep were shorn there than on any other property in NSW”.
Since the Edols the Scottish Australian Land Company and the Killen family have owned the place, and most recently, it was owned by the Japanese construction company Kajima.
In 1992 Kajima spent $8 million to build a five-star bush retreat which the Pickles ran as a tourism operation until recently. The luxurious complex includes four lodges, which together contain 12 suites.
The central, four-bedroom homestead was built in 1992 and features a formal dining room, lounge, billiards room and bar. The complex is completed by two tennis courts, a 20-metre pool and a sauna.
“I’ll miss the wide open spaces and the river gums," Mr Pickles said.
Expressions of interest close July 14.
