Cape River, Pentland 22386 Flinders Highway Pentland QLD 4816

Services:

Pentland was established in the mid-1850s, becoming a critical rail and communication junction of the day in this period. The discovery of gold, then timber and cattle, and subsequently sawmill and meatworks industries assisted in maintaining its early thriving position. Today the small town, with an estimated population of 250, offers many historical and natural attractions such as the historical Railway Station, Norwood Lockup, Burra Range Lookout, and birdlife. Large coal reserves have previously been identified in this area. With technological advances in the mining industry, there exist opportunities for coal mining operations. Pentland has a Pub, Service station, Police Station, Café, Caravan Park and a Primary School plus other additional small businesses.

Location:

Cape River is approximately 7 km from the small township of Pentland. It is around a 7-minute drive to Pentland, and it is approximately 1 ½ hours’ drive to Charters Towers. Townsville is also approximately 3 1/4 hours’ drive away.

Area & Tenure:

Total Area - 918.9 ha approximately 2270.65 acres

Freehold

Land /Country:

Cape River is a mixture of soil types. Along the banks of the river are rich fertile, alluvial loam soils and black soils. With large areas of flat, cleared land. Away from the banks of the river it changes into lighter loam soils, decomposed granites and red clay type soils, typical “Gold Fields” country. The property is timbered with trees such as Moreton Bay gum’s, Iron bark, Blood wood, Grey box gum, Vine wood, other various trees and parts of soft wood scrub. The grasses consist of mostly Buffel, Black spear grass, Urachloa, Native Rhodes, Indian couch, blue grass, River Couch, Green Panic and other native and non-native grasses. In addition to these grasses the country has a mixture of legumes such as Seca Stylo, Butterfly pea and Verano which help provide extra protein for cattle, especially later in the year. It has a mixture of good farming land along the river and reliable cattle country off the river.

There is approximately 297.41 Ha or 734.9 acres of Category X land with the majority of this land already cleared and ready to farm.

House & Sheds:

Cape River has a nice solid, well-built three-bedroom timber framed house on stumps overlooking the river. It is fully airconditioned throughout with split systems, it has a nice modern kitchen, a large pantry, a recently renovated bathroom, good sized bedrooms a large open plan living and dining area and beautiful polished floors. Out the front of the house is a long veranda up on stumps and out the back of the house is a large undercover cement patio with an additional shower & toilet plus a storage room and a garden shed.

In addition to the house there is a very large excellent quality shed, built out of steel I beams, masonry block walls and corrugated iron roofing. This shed is approximately 20 metres wide x 25 metres long x 7.5 metres high. It has a concrete floor and electricity connected.

In addition to this shed is a section of the old meat works which is still in good condition. Is currently used to house plant and equipment, hay and machinery. It is approximately 50 metres wide x 50 metres long and 15 metres high by estimation.

Farming History:

Cape River has previously grown crops such as Sorghum (both forage and grain), Rhodes Grass, Rye corn, Barley, Wheat and Dolichos. The current owners have made silage, grown grain crops and made hay successfully. The soil is well draining and reasonably fertile and crops such as these are great for this type of farming. Not far downstream other farmers are successfully growing potatoes. The farming land has always been irrigated by the two centre pivots and the travelling irrigator

Cattle Yards:

The property used to be the Cape River meat works and subsequently has a decent set of solid steel yards on the property not far from the house. It can hold and process moderate numbers of cattle (around 250 at a time). These yards have been used to feedlot cattle during drier years with the current owner installing feed bunks and feed lotting their own cattle. The current owner has fed weaners on silage to condition them for their western fattening country and finished bullocks from their western fattening country in drier years on a grain ration all grown on the property.

Fencing:

The property is fenced into 6 main paddocks. Four larger paddocks and two smaller holding paddocks. The fencing is a combination of heavy and high tensile barbed wire with the majority being three strands of barb with some 4 barb also. The pickets are mostly black tar painted however new sections have been fenced using 6ft hot dipped gal pickets and heavy barb wire. The 400 acres of farming area around the centre pivots is fenced using hot dipped gal pickets, heavy duty barb and wire netting fencing, helping make it as pig and wallaby proof as possibly achievable. The majority of the strainer posts are steel type assemblies with very few timber assemblies remaining. Aside from the farming land the balance of the property is setup to run cattle, with dry cattle found to being the most profitable and economical for the current owners.

Water: River Water, Bores, Treated Water, Dam & Swamp

Cape River has a licensed water allocation of 360 Mega Litres (ML) per water year, with no water charges. There are 8 approved extraction points along the Cape River which are marked by GPS coordinates. These locations are on the allocation document is where water can be legally pumped from. To the best of the owner’s knowledge, the only known legal requirements for this water allocation is to have approved water metres installed on all pumps which draw water from the river (apart pumps used from riparian use) and to only pump from the 8 approved locations. There is currently no water meters installed on the property. Currently the owners only have 4 of the 8 extraction points equipped with sand spears, inside screens.

Bores:

In addition to the river water are non-proclaimed bed sands, which runs right up to the edge of the riverbank. This non-proclaimed area allows you to drill and pump from as many bores locations as you desire with no water restrictions and no metering required. Currently there are 3 large bores along this non-proclaimed section.

(Bed sands is where the old riverbed used to flow).

Dam & Swamp:

The property also has a large dam which was originally built for stock water requirements for the meat works cattle. It is currently only used for stock purposes. The is a natural Swamp which holds water for most of the year on normal seasons. It is located on the northeastern side of the property which has some very good black soil.

Treated water:

In addition to this the Charters Towers Regional Council has a water treatment plant on the property and a pipeline running through the property, which could potentially be accessed for drinking and livestock water purposes with council applications and approvals (buyer do your own due diligence).

Irrigation:

The irrigated land is watered by a combination of high-pressure PVC and a small amount of underground galvanised steel piping (about 40 metres) from the river spear.

There is 1.5km of 8-Inch high pressure PVC running from the main bore up and sand spear up to the first pivot and another 1.8 km of 6-inch PVC branching off to the second pivot.

Most of the cleared land has been irrigated and previously farmed.

There is approximately 200 acres that is irrigated by two centre pivots. Only one centre pivot will be operational. Both pivots are interchangeable with each other.
The additional original farming land (approximately 40 acres) at the front of the property and is watered using a Southern cross travelling irrigator and flood irrigation.

Of the Category X Land approximately 500 acres of the 734 acres is cleared, cutter barred, and stick picked. There is approximately 400 acres surrounding the pivots that is fully netting fenced. Beside the pivots heading north is another cleared paddock which is approximately 116 acres, 50 of those acres have had the stumps removed using an excavator.

Electricity:

Ergon Energy have an electricity substation on the property, with an easement to access the power station from the main road. Having this established power plant on the property could potentially present future opportunities to buyers to lease or sell to renewable energy companies, at the very least this substation provides very reliable electricity.

All of the electricity has been upgraded to three phase power. The centre pivots have a three-phase underground electricity to them coming from an independent transformer and power box. The electricity to the main bores has also been upgraded to a 100KVA transformer and it also has its own independent power box to manage this connection independently.

Phone & Internet:

There is mobile phone signal on property however it is limited at times. Telstra have a hub on the property which could potentially be accessed for a landline service (Buyers do own due diligence). Another more popular option is to go to satellite internet for phone and computer services. One provider which has been reliable so far is Starlink.

Plant & Equipment:

There is a list of plant and machinery included in the sale. This list will be provided to buyers upon request / application.

The two centre pivot irrigators will also be included in the sale.

Cattle:

The option of approximately 250 Red Brahman steers weighing 400kg on average can be included in the sale by negotiation.

Quarry Material Allocation:

Included with the property will be Quarry Material Allocation out of the Cape River, which will be transferred to the buyers along with the Water allocation as part of the sale.

There is also another potential gravel quarry which has been identified on the western side of the property, (no licenses or permits have been obtained to extract this gravel yet).

Disclaimer: The above report has been prepared by Slaney & Co based on information supplied by the property owner and other credible sources. Every endeavour has been made to verify its accuracy. Whilst we trust the information to be correct, we make no warranties nor guarantees, and prospective purchasers must rely on their own enquiries & research. © Copyright Slaney & Co