CSIRO sells Arding research station at Armidale for $2.95 million

Arding, which has been occupied by the CSIRO since 1947 in New England grazing country has been sold for $2.95 million.

CSIRO’s long-held Arding research station is a 325 hectare (803-acre) Armidale property. The property sold under the hammer to Annette and John Cassidy of Merilba, Kingstown.

It was one of two portions of the pioneering White family’s Saumarez Station acquired by the federal government in 1947 for use by the fledgling Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later CSIRO).

Arding and the other property, Chiswick, were initially used by the plant industry division for soil and pasture research, but The Land's veteran rural reporter Peter Austin noted since 1960 the focus of both sites has swung to animal, especially sheep, research dealing with breeding technology, internal parasites, nutrition, husbandry practices and information systems.

The 24 paddock Arding was listed to free-up funds for re-investment as part of CSIRO’s contribution to the University of New England’s Integrated Agricultural Education Project, involving five separate capital works projects across the university’s Armidale and Tamworth campuses.

It was listed through Geoff Leedman of Landmark Armidale with price expectations in the $6,000 a hectare ($2,400 per acre) or higher for the property situated 13 kilometres south of Armidale fronting the New England Highway.

Saumarez Station (pictured below), which is located about five kilometres south of Armidale, was one of the earliest grazing runs established on the New England tablelands during the 1830s.

Photo courtesy of the National Trust.

Henry Dumaresq, a former army officer and brother-in-law of Governor Ralph Darling, claimed a squatting station on the New England tablelands, naming it Samaurez in memory of his family connections with the Seigneur de Sausmarez in the Channel Isles. 

In 1857 the licensed pastoral run was sold to Henry Arding Thomas who sold Saumarez in 1874 for £40,000 and moved to Camden west of Sydney.

The property’s new 1874 owner was Francis White.

When Elsie While died in 1981 at the age of ninety-seven, the homestead was gifted to the National Trust as an eduring example of a late-nineteenth century Australian pastoral station.

The remaining 3,000 acres surrounding Saumarez homestead is still run by the descendants of FJ White.