Tatyoon was acquired five years ago, in better times, to complement the Buster operations centred on Bourke in western NSW.

The Buster family, who came to Australia from the US in the 1960s, are regarded as one of the great success stories of outback Australia. The legend goes that old Jack Buster, when he first crossed the North Bourke Bridge, looked with great astonishment at the under-utilised blacksoil floodplains and the Darling River surrounding the tiny town.

Tatyoon, with a price tag of $5 million, is a four-hour drive west of Sydney. It has high-security water licences from both the Lachlan and Belubula rivers, with a 3000 megalitre allocation, as well as four bores. Extensive drip irrigation has been installed, and there is a well maintained homestead, farm cottage and machinery sheds.

* Rural

TATYOON is for sale for one reason: El Nino.

Owned by the McLaughlin and Buster families, the $5 million property near the confluence of the Lachlan and Belubula rivers in central NSW has what everybody wants: high-security water and lots of it.

With meteorologists rating the chances of an El Nino drought this year at up to 90 per cent, and with rain deficits right across the grain belt and government regulation of irrigators growing tighter, water is once more like gold.

Tatyoon was acquired five years ago, in better times, to complement the Buster operations centred on Bourke in western NSW.

The Buster family, who came to Australia from the US in the 1960s, are regarded as one of the great success stories of outback Australia. The legend goes that old Jack Buster, when he first crossed the North Bourke Bridge, looked with great astonishment at the under-utilised blacksoil floodplains and the Darling River surrounding the tiny town.

Thus was born the multi-million dollar Buster dynasty and the family company Darling Farms, which plants over 3000ha of cotton annually and has won thecoveted industry award for cotton farmers of the year.

The Buster family’s Bourke properties made the international news in 2000 when a touring Prince Philip was shown a device for measuring water depth in soil, called a Piezometer. The gaffe-prone prince asked what a “pissometer” was, leading to “Outback faux pas” headlines in the British press.

Now dry conditions and tight government regulation of irrigators has forced the Tatyoon sale, and those “pissometers” aren’t finding much to measure.

“We have had a drought in Bourke and I am having to consolidate,” said Stephen Buster, son of founding father Jack. “We have had a shocker of a year. Want to start me on the effect of government water policy here in Bourke?”

Meares & Associates is handling the sale of Tatyoon. Tenders close on July 18.

The Busters aren’t the only ones feeling the impact of El Nino. The Crop Report of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, released this week, shows that less than half of the expected 2002-03 winter crop of wheat, barley and canola was sown by early this month due to a lack of rain across the grain belt. In nearly all districts in the critical April-May period, rainfall was less than last year and below long-term averages.

In Victoria there has been insufficient rain to ensure widespread winter plantings, while in hard-hit Queensland producers may leave land fallow. In South Australia less than 10 per cent of the expected planting was sown by the end of May.

Even assuming there is sufficient planting rain over the next month, ABARE forecasts winter crop production to be down 5.2 million tonnes on last year’s crop. Wheat production is forecast to fall by 3.5 million tonnes to its lowest level since the last El Nino event in 1997-98. In Queensland the area planted to wheat is expected to fall 38 per cent.

Tatyoon, with a price tag of $5 million, is a four-hour drive west of Sydney. It has high-security water licences from both the Lachlan and Belubula rivers, with a 3000 megalitre allocation, as well as four bores. Extensive drip irrigation has been installed, and there is a well maintained homestead, farm cottage and machinery sheds.

The rich alluvial soils and good water make it ideal as a kind of giant “vegie farm”. As well as the more traditional crops, it produces pumpkins and watermelons. There are already Edgell contracts for sweet corn and beans.

Grant Woods of Meares & Associates describes Tatyoon as “one of the most vibrant and dynamic places I have ever been on. There is nothing you can’t do with it”.

But any sales pitch on Tatyoon rapidly shifts to talk of water allocations.

As Stephen Buster succinctly put it: “Now is a good time to be selling a good water property.”

EL NINO GRIPS THE COUNTRY

NSW: Winter cropping area to fall by 300,000ha. Fifty per cent of state drought declared.

VICTORIA: Wheat production down nine per cent and canola 17 per cent as total crop area falls.

QUEENSLAND: Total winter crop area down 26 per cent. Very poor start to the winter cropping season.

WA: Total winter crop area down 2.4 per cent, with continuing dry conditions. Wheat down 3 per cent, barley 5 per cent, canola 11 per cent.

SA: Winter production to fall 31 per cent from last year’s highs.

Source: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.