Beetaloo and Mungabroom, the Northern Territory cattle stations made famous by the late pioneering cattleman John Dunnicliff and backed by billionaire Brett Blundy, have been offered for sale with expectations the aggregation could fetch as much as $200 million.
Covering more than 1 million hectares on the western edge of the Barkly Tableland, the land is regarded as one of the best stations in the Territory due to Mr Dunnicliff's innovation and investment in watering points which significantly boosted the productivity and cattle carrying capacity.
The Dunnicliff family, which trades as the Barkly Pastoral Co, confirmed its decision to sell following Mr Dunnicliff's death earlier this year after a protracted battle with pancreatic cancer.
After his death, Mr Dunnicliff received an Order of Australia for ''services to the livestock industry'' with particular reference to the water development plan on Beetaloo.
The family said it felt the timing was right as the business moved from development phase to operational phase, but also as strong global investor demand continued to drive improved prices for cattle grazing land across Australia.
Ben Cameron, of Bentleys International Advisory, has been appointed to advise through a confidential off-market sale process.
An investment overview document that contains details on the properties and business assets will be made available to interested parties in early October.
"We are commencing preparation for the sale process and from our recent experience as advisers to some of the largest transactions in the Australian beef cattle industry we are confident that there will be significant interest," Mr Cameron said.
"Given the scale of the properties, size of the cattle herd and the extensive on-farm development Beetaloo is arguably one of the most improved large-scale cattle production businesses in Australia".
Beetaloo comprises 707,800 hectares, while Mungabroom covers 346,900 hectares.
The properties have been extensively developed since they were acquired in 2002, with 74 bores and 603 watering points covering more than 92 per cent of the total land area.
In the developed areas, one of the cattle need only walk 2.5 kilometres to a watering point, which for a Northern Territory cattle station is a remarkably small distance.
The aggregation is currently running about 85,000 head of Brahman and Brahman cross cattle. The properties have a carrying capacity over more than 100,000 cattle, which is unusually high.
Mr Cameron said Barkly Pastoral Co would seek interest in the properties from both Australian and overseas parties.
Neither the family, nor Bentleys, commented on billionaire Brett Blundy's involvement in the sale process.
It is understood the retailer who purchased the neighbouring property Walhallow for $100 million from Macquarie Group's Paraway Pastoral last year, holds a debenture covering a substantial share of the Beetaloo business.
Mr Blundy has been growing his cattle station portfolio just as a number of notable Australian businesspeople such as Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Gerry Harvey have also been doing so.
Values for cattle stations have also started to rise especially with higher prices for beef owing to a shortage of supply in Australia.
A shortlist of interested parties for Beetaloo will be selected to proceed to due diligence in January next year.
This story first appeared on The Australian Financial Review