Camel farm the size of Paddington sells to cannabis farmer
Shelby Ackerman gets a sample of Summer Land Camels’ new vodka with CEO Paul Martin who has just sold part of his Ipswich land holdings. Picture: Nigel Hallett
Medicinal cannabis farmer Drew Steptoe has just bought a camel farm the size of Paddington, blitzing a $16m inner-city auction event as the Ekka comes early to the property market.
City and country selling agents worked together to bring the 225 hectare Ipswich farm to auction with 11 registered bidders from as far as Hamilton Island and Hervey Bay taking part in the auction.
This farm at 115 Mutdapilly Churchbank Weir Rd, Mutdapilly was sold by Warren Ramsey of Ray White Ipswich and Hamish Bowman of Ray White New Farm.
But in the end it was Mr Steptoe, a neighbour, who bought the Mutdapilly farm at 115 Mutdapilly Churchbank Weir Rd for $4.65m. “I wish I had just bought Paddington for $4.65m,” Mr Steptoe said.
The hydroponic farmer, who runs The Tree Co Farm in Mutdapilly but lives in Brisbane, said the extra space will be used as part of the under-construction $333m medicinal cannabis farm while also growing trees for use in council streetscaping and larger residential and commercial developments. “It also has additional water security which is important for us,” Mr Steptoe said.
A dam on the property.
Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush accepted an opening bid of $2m for the camel farm with its five-bedroom Queenslander, three-bedroom second home and 16 fully-fenced paddocks.
One of two homes on the suburb-sized block
Summer Land Camels farmer Paul Martin had owned the property since 2015 as part of an even larger land holding, for his business that produces everything from skin care products to camel milk vodka.
“I’ve got three people living out there,” Mr Martin said.
An aerial shot takes in the bigger picture.
“We’ve got a big dairy there but we are at the stage where we need to leverage a bit of capital so we can go to the next stage and get into baby formula and things like that.”
The auction was the top sale in a Ray White auction event on Saturday that saw 18 homes head under the hammer with seven selling on the day for $16.113m and one selling prior to auction, resulting in a 44 per cent clearance rate.
The auction event was the curtain-raiser for a huge day of auction sales that included a new ‘under-the-hammer’ Brisbane auction record, with the $10.21m sale of 16 Leura Tce, Hawthorne. The riverfront home belonged to the late Brisbane businessman, Jim Kennedy. While a two-bedroom apartment at 2/15 Julius St, New Farm sold for $2.33m.
Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush. Picture: Annette Dew
“That second rate rise came as school holidays started, and forever and a day school holidays have seen a drop-off in inquiry,” Ray White New Farm principal and auctioneer, Haesley Cush said. “Now everyone has come back from holidays and we are seeing bidding and today’s results are as strong as you would expect.”
