A FARMING family local to the Tambellup region has purchased the premium farm Somerset.
Spanning 1908.53 hectares, the property at Tambellup was arguably one of the best presented farms with scale in the region to be presented to the market this year.
Ray White Rural WA sales representative Mike Batchelor was appointed to market the property on behalf of vendors, the Webster family.
"I'm happy to see the property go to a local farming family," Mr Batchelor said.
The buyer's farming operation is similar to that of Somerset, being mixed cropping and sheep, with about two thirds to cropping and one third to sheep.
The family, who asked to not be named, has been farming in Tambellup for three generations and said it knew the vendors rather well.
This acquisition will give the purchaser the opportunity to increase their scale with country that was very similar to what they already farm on.
Having been looking for land for a while, the buyer said this property was a great addition to their farming business and would easily fit into their operation.
Somerset had been farmed on a long-term sustainable basis.
It had been in the vendor's family since 1963 and increased in size over several decades.
Somerset was well watered via 27 dams, which were well maintained.
But the real water appeal was from a scheme water pipeline that services the Tambellup township and passes through the property with three metered outlets that provide guaranteed water for stock, spraying and domestic use.
The pipeline, coupled with good, reliable rainfall meant the property had never had an issue with water since the vendors had farmed it.
The property was ideally suited to mixed farming, with some secondary grazing country.
Somerset also had adequate infrastructure to support a mixed farming operation, including a new large machinery shed, a four-stand shearing shed with a holding shed and steel yards, three general purpose sheds, spray filling area with tanks connected to mains water and a 50,000 litre Flexi-N tank.
Accommodation was also provided with two houses which are both connected to scheme water.
All parties involved - including the vendor, buyer and selling agent declined to comment on price, however the asking price at the time of marketing was $7.5 million.
Rural Bank's annual Australian Farmland Values report wrote that 2019 land values for the Broomehill-Tambellup region were $2442 per hectare.
It also reported land values had grown by 1.7 per cent in the past five years, 0.3pc in 10 years and 4.7pc in 20 years.
