Corowa' Collendina Station fetches $7.05 million, joining rural spring sales spree
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Collendina, a 1,267-hectare cattle and grain property in southern NSW near Corowa, has joined the spring Riverina sales successes.
It sold today at $7.05 million to the Cooper family from Daylesford, Victoria through estate agents Brian Liston at Landmark Albury and Phil Rourke, the Paramatta-based NSW real estate manager at Harcourts.
The historic 1891 homestead is one of the original holdings on the upper reaches of the Murray River in NSW. The property was initially settled in 1841.
Tom Roberts, a founder of the Heidelberg School, painted and sketched members of the Hay family while at Collendina Station, Corowa. In 1889-1890 Roberts' famous painting Shearing the Rams was painted at Corowa from sketches and drawings he made in the shearing shed of nearby Brocklesby Station.
The Hay family sold in 1924 to the Carroll family for £130,000 when it sat on 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares). Edward Carroll, of Malvern, was responsible for the construction of Maroondah Reservoir in Healesville.
Located 19 kilometres west of Corowa and 68 kilometres west of Albury/Wodonga, Collendina Station has an extensive frontage to the Murray River. At its peak, Collendina stretched across 18,000 hectares and was first taken up by Robert Brown in 1841.
William Hay and sons Alfred and Henry bought the pastoral lease in 1873 with Henry Hay building the 30-room homestead.
The latest ownership – and auction listing – came after the Cranney family were evicted from the farm in August by the National Australia Bank, which has been seeking an alleged $7,552,088 debt in continuing complicated family trust court proceedings.
It was listed under instructions from McGrath Nicol as receivers/managers.
The family had previously been involved in lengthy legal proceedings where they alleged that their property, located approximately 80 kilometres west of the Hume Dam, was inundated in 1996 when the Murray Darling Basin Commission released water from the dam in breach of its duty to take reasonable care in doing so with the result that the plaintiffs suffered loss and damage.