Grand Southern Highlands estate on market for first time in 20 years

MALCOLM and Raylee Williams purchased three properties in the New South Wales Southern Slopes in 2000 and merged the land to become the 875ha estate named Neringah.

After 20 years of cattle and sheep farming, the Williams are ready to downsize and sell their colonial Georgian homestead under the hammer through Ray White Rural New South Wales State Manager Chris Malone.

The house and land in the rural village Boorowa, 45 minutes from Cowra and Young, is less than four hours from Sydney in an area well known for livestock production.

While you may not know his name, Mr Williams is the man responsible for bringing Portaloos to Australia in 1976 through his company On Site Rentals Australia.

Originally from Sydney’s inner west, Mr Williams' resume doesn’t just stop at Portaloos, he also boasts an impressive background in the stock and cattle industry.

“When we bought the property I had already been involved in breeding Poll Hereford cattle and showing prize winning bulls so a life in the bush ran deeply in my veins but my wife, Raylee, was looking forward to indulging in and expanding her passion for watercolour painting,” Mr Williams said.

“At the time we decided that the next chapter in our lives would be the exciting prospect of finding a property like Neringah and once we did, we embarked on designing a home and lifestyle very different from our Balmain home,” Mr Williams said.

The couple haven’t been idle during the tenure of Neringah, overseeing improvements and renovations to both the land and farming infrastructure on the property.

“We set about bringing the soils back to high performance and planting 3,000 trees in the lane as a way to rapidly move stock from one area to another,” Mr Williams said.

“We also returned troughs and fencing to a high standard, maintained and improved existing dams and bore water and recently we installed a desalination plant.

Other infrastructure improvements include creating extensive laneways for trafficking stock from all paddocks, the construction of a new three-stand shearing shed, reticulated water to troughs throughout and rainwater tanks able to collect up to 600,000 litres of water.

The colonial Georgian homestead was also constructed by the Williams as a nod to the English pastoralists that travelled west and created a booming agricultural industry in the state’s Southern Tablelands.

“In the past, English farmers took up their selection of land and built mud and daub homes reminiscent of the style of their past lives in England and Ireland, with plenty of space for family and friends to come and relax,” Mr Williams said.

“We were inspired by this and then set about creating a ‘frame’ for the house in establishing a beautiful garden meandering through the flowers and trees and creating a Bay Leaf maze - a favourite with the grandchildren for their annual Easter Egg Hunt.”

The name Neringah echoes Mr Williams’ idyllic vision for his property and means a place of peace - something he said he borrowed from the time he lived on Neringah Avenue, Wahroonga.

“Neringah Avenue is where the Neringah Hospital calls home and after the Second World War, it was where our returning injured Aussie soldiers came to recover their health,” he said.

“It seemed like the perfect name to call our future country home and future less stressful life, so our new country acquisition was christened Neringah linking us to our previous city life.”

Ray White’s Chris Malone said while Neringah, which is rated at 6500 DSE, has only been on the market for two weeks but already the level of enquiry has been strong.

“"The interest we have received in a property of this calibre shouldn't come as a surprise, and coupled with our vendor's willingness to meet the market on auction day, the response has been positive",” Mr Malone said.

“It is a mixed farming opportunity with immaculate improvements, I have rarely seen a property that has such good infrastructure and improvements.”

The Ray White Rural NSW State Manager also said he has seen no shortage of buyers looking to make the move to the country with agriculture seen as a safe investment in the current climate.

“Because of the seasonal change, good rain in rural New South Wales, low interest rates and good commodity prices, it’s a good time to get into Australian agriculture - we are seeing a lot of people want to make that move,” he said.

The auction will be held online at 10:30am, Friday, June 12.