Riding on the sheep’s back: [1 Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 10 May 2002: 24.
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Abstract
The Garnocks had two sons, both of whom had originally planned to go on the land. Thus, while maintaining South Bukalong as their base, they bought Corrowong to provide for the future of one of their two sons.
“It’s a working property,” says Mr [Murray Garnock]. “It’s good healthy merino country. The shortage of sheep is really helping the carcass value, which has trebled from $20 to $60 a carcass in the past 15 months, while the wool price has gone up 50 per cent in the last couple of years.
NSW Rural Real Estate manager for selling agents Wesfarmers Landmark, Phil Rourke, said working properties such as Corrowong are in demand.
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* Rural
CORROWONG Station, a sheep station set in the picturesque foothills of the Snowy Mountains, is for sale with price expectations of about $1.3 million.
The 2552ha property lacks the grand drives and whopping brick homesteads that endear many a rural property to urban elites.
But it does have a serious carrying capacity of 8000 head of sheep over winter.
And, with the wool and prime lamb markets at all-time highs, that’s exactly what serious investors want.
Corrowong Station is situated in the southern Monaro, about 90 minutes’ drive from Cooma.
Its landscape is mixed, with its treeless plains running back into the high timber country of the alpine regions. There are views over the Snowy Mountains, with the whole vista reminiscent of the bushranger days.
The ruins of the old Catholic Corrowong Church are on a corner of the property, with an adjacent cemetery in which are buried many pioneering families.
Corrowong Station was settled in the 1850s by the O’Hare family, prior to the area being surveyed.
The family held the property until 1995, when the original 12,000 acres (4.8ha) were split in half.
The family retained half and sold the remainder to the well- known Garnock family from nearby South Bukalong Station.
Mind you, as present owner Murray Garnock is married to Carol, a direct descendent of the O’Hare family, it hasn’t strayed too far from its original provenance. The reasons for selling have, ironically, much to do with succession planning.
The Garnocks had two sons, both of whom had originally planned to go on the land. Thus, while maintaining South Bukalong as their base, they bought Corrowong to provide for the future of one of their two sons.
But instead of going on the land, their eldest son Lindsay ended up being a financial planner, specialising, ironically enough, in succession planning.
South Bukalong is enough for the family to operate.
“It’s a working property,” says Mr Garnock. “It’s good healthy merino country. The shortage of sheep is really helping the carcass value, which has trebled from $20 to $60 a carcass in the past 15 months, while the wool price has gone up 50 per cent in the last couple of years.
“The good prices have markedly lifted the mood of the industry.”
The expected price for the auction scheduled for 22 May is more than $1.3 million. Five years ago, when wool and prime lamb prices were both in the doldrums, they would have been hard put to sell the property at all.
NSW Rural Real Estate manager for selling agents Wesfarmers Landmark, Phil Rourke, said working properties such as Corrowong are in demand.
“Properties with a carrying capacity of 8000-plus sheep will justify having a manager, and therefore they appeal to off-farm buyers who can have the benefits of an investment with an income stream and a weekend lifestyle as well if they so wish,” Mr Rourke said.
The current manager on Corrowong, Harry Baker, has been on the property for 40 years and in many ways is an integral part of it, he said.