Hewitt Cattle Australia to list its 87,000ha Charters Towers portfolio

By Alexandra O'Neil - CBRE Communications Manager

Hewitt Cattle Australia has listed for sale its Mt Cooper Aggregation in Northern Queensland’s renowned large-scale grazing region for sale.

Located about 150km south of Townsville and 80km south-east of Charters Towers, adjacent to Dalrymple Lake, the parcel covers more than 87,000ha with an estimated carrying capacity of 8,500 Adult Equivalents.

The large-scale breeding aggregation is the amalgam of Hewitt Cattle Australia’s ‘Mt Cooper’ and ‘Harvest Home’ stations, which are being offered in one line or as separate assets, assets along with circa 7,000 cattle, providing a turn-key opportunity for investors to access to a high quality and fully operational beef enterprise.  

Mick Hewitt, CEO of Hewitt Cattle Australia, said; “After many years of successfully operating in the North Queensland region, the time has come to divest the Mt Cooper Aggregation as we continue to expand our focus in regions targeting organic production.”

“Given this change in focus, these assets are no longer as strategically relevant to our growing, organic grazing, processing and retailing portfolio,” Mr Hewitt added.

“As a company we are proud of the extensive investment we have made in this region over many years and, in particular, the high standard of infrastructure and pasture development implemented across both Mt Cooper and Harvest Home during our tenure.”

Queensland Rural’s Peter Macpherson and Troy Trevor along with CBRE Agribusiness’s Danny Thomas and Simon Cudmore have been appointed to sell the aggregation.

Peter Macpherson noted “Having had a reasonable 2019-2020 wet season, the divestment of this well-established aggregation affords both local family and institutional operators an excellent opportunity to acquire very well-located breeding country with scale”.

Ben Hewitt, COO of Hewitt Cattle Australia added that; “As the former home of myself and my family, the sale of the Mt Cooper Aggregation reflects a progressive change in our company’s strategic direction.”

“We are proud to present these well-developed northern pastoral assets to the market following many years of dedicated development initiatives focused on improving productivity and ease of management across the aggregation,” Mr Hewitt said.

“Knowing the property as well as I do, I have every confidence the successful purchasers will reap the benefits of this investment, particularly given the recent rainfall, which has set the property up perfectly moving forward.”

Danny Thomas said “Local, Interstate and Foreign Interest in agriculture has never been stronger, particularly for large scale, well developed northern beef assets. We expect very high market participation from all buyer segments, particularly given the low interest rate environment and exchange rate settings”.

The Aggregation is being offered for sale by Expression of Interest closing Monday 8 June 2020 at 4pm (AEST).

https://www.cbre.com.au/