Uardry Merino stud sold to South Australia's Brinkworth family
The Uardry Merino stud and property has been sold to South Australia's Brinkworth family.
Tom and Patricia Brinkworth and family are considered among Australia’s biggest wool growers, reportedly owning 68 properties.
It comes just a year since the Black family announced plans last August to sell the iconic 35,000-hectare NSW property. It last traded at the depth of the early 1970s wool recession.
The sheep farm near Hay produced “Hallmark”, the ram featured on the Australian shilling from 1938 to 1966.
Initial estimates suggested about $40 million was expected for the offering, although today's Weekly Times report does not give a selling price estimate.
The Black family has owned Uardry – established in 1864 and home to the Shilling Ram – since the early 1970s.
In announcing plans for the sale last year, Uardry managing director Graeme Black said his family's decision "to divest its interests was not made lightly''.
In 2005, the Black family sold the 80,000-hectare Yanga Station at Balranald to the NSW government for a reported $30 million to $40 million.
Colliers International executive of rural and agribusiness Craig Young confirmed the October 30 scheduled settlement, saying it was good to see that an Australian family had purchased the Uardry property.
Mr Brinkworth and wife Patricia already control more than 1 million hectares – home to 350,000 sheep – across South Australia and NSW. “It spreads our risk around a bit, and it’s a really good location with a bit of water,” Mr Brinkworth told The Australian Financial Review of the acquisition. Industry sources said it sold for about $30 million. The sale was facilitated by the vendor advocate Bill Russell of Russell Harvey & Co, the property advisory company.The stud's full history featured on its website starts when the first Europeans to take up land at Uardry were John Ray and Henry Angel. Ray arrived in 1840, Angel following four years later. Ray and Angel were cattle breeders and reaped the benefits of the 1850s goldrush by selling stock to hungry miners on the New South Wales and Victorian goldfields.
In 1864, Angel and Ray sold their properties and lease holding to the partnership of Thomas and William Wragge and John and James Hearn for 1,000 pounds. For the next 11 years, the Wragge and Hearn partnership ran the property changing the name to Wardry. Some time later, the name was changed to Uardry (Aboriginal for Yellow-Box tree) when a land surveyor showed the name clashed with another Wardry further north.
It was the Wragge and Hearn partnership that introduced merino sheep to Uardry in 1864. They bought 5,000 four-year old ewes from the Peppin Brothers of Wanganella.
Charles Mills, Andrew Neilson and William Smith became the new owners of Uardry in 1875. Charles Mills and Andrew Neilson were particularly skilled woolmen and through their guidance, Uardry began to develop as a stud of major significance.
Mills and Neilson together evolved the Uardry Merino as a distinct strain; big-framed, with bold fronts and good folds, the wool was long stapled, dense and of excellent quality. Tremendous importance was placed on the character and handle of the wool. The records show that for the first 45 years, no Australian-bred sheep were introduced to Uardry. According to Charles Mills’ diaries up to 1909, the only introduction in Uardry’s first 45 years of evolution were two early Rambouillets, one discarded early, the other used to breed up an American flock of 500 ewes some years later. A Saxon ram was introduced after the original Rambouillets. This important fact forms the basis for the prepotency of the Uardry stock.
On the deaths of his partners, Charles Mills bought out their shares and with the assistance of his eldest son, Ainslie, continued to develop the stud further. When Ainslie died of appendicitis in 1908, his brother Neilson took up the reins and he worked closely with his father for 8 years, absorbing much of Charles Mills’ knowledge and experience.
Following Charles’ retirement in 1909, Neilson Mills introduced nine Boonoke rams. Another infusion of new blood during Neilson’s era was from Haddon Rig. The other purchase of significance was a pen of rams and some ewes from the Murgha stud dispersal of 1921. From this pen of rams purchased, one in particular stood out. He became the Grass-Fed Champion at Sydney in 1923 and eventually the Grand Champion Ram. He sired many top sheep and was the grandsire of Uardry 0.1 – the ram on the Australian Shilling coin.
