A SIGNIFICANT 511.12 hectare (1,262.98 acre) property near Branxholme has been sold to Valley River Holdings Pty Ltd, a Perth-based company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.

The sale was contracted late last year and has recently settled at a price of $8,613,524, equating to $16,852 per hectare or $6820 per acre.

Details have been confirmed by searches of Certificate of Title, Land Transfers and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Current Company Extract.

The property was sold by the Tonissen family through agents Charles Stewart & Co.

It is a well-equipped basalt loam property with two houses one a four-bedroom Mount Gambier stone house built in 2005, the other is a brick house completed in 1978.

The farm buildings include a modern three-stand raised board woolshed and a five-bay steel hayshed erected in 2000.

The property has an average annual rainfall of 694 millimetres.

Of particular interest is the property’s location within the onshore portion of the Otway Basin which has been subject to extensive test drilling for oil and gas.

This generated strong backlash from many district landowners.

Readers will probably be aware of the Commonwealth Government’s recent change of stance, from negative to positive, on the role of natural gas in the energy mix for Australia’s moved towards net zero emissions.

The matter is proving somewhat controversial.

The Petroleum Atlas of Victoria (page 113) shows the general district around Branxholme as having oil and gas “shows” resulting from test drilling.

The Atlas also indicates (page 111) that the area stretching west from Hamilton to the South Australian border and including Nelson, Portland, Tyrendarra and Byaduk is pending issue of a production permit.

A representative of Hancock Prospecting, when contacted by The Spectator, politely declined to make comment regarding the intended future use of the property.