A Sydney-based South African family has bought a second cattle station in the Northern Territory, with the purchase of Big River Station last week.
The Langenhoven family, owners of a flooring business in Sydney, bought the property just five months after purchasing the neighbouring Mt McMinn Station.
Big River Station, a 70,800-hectare property in the Roper Valley, south-east of Katherine, sold for $5.5 million, according to documents obtained from the NT Land Titles Office.
Alison Ross from Elders in Katherine said the purchase was made off-market with the new owners looking to expand their cattle operation.
"They just wanted to ensure they had a bigger land mass; the transaction will go through bare of cattle and the previous owners will stay on there for a few years as they put in their development plan for both properties," Ms Ross said.
"But certainly livestock is their main focus."
Daniel Tapp and Shannon Townsend-Tapp have been at Big River Station since the original Roper Valley Station pastoral lease was subdivided in 1996.
"So they have been developing it as they can. There is some quite comfortable accommodation there, cattle yards, fencing and there is quite a lot of surface water at Big River," Ms Ross said.
"It certainly isn't at its full potential yet; there is room for more development but what is there is a start.
"There is room to further expand, and that is obviously the purchaser's plan over the next two, five, 10 years."
The Tapp family have signed a sub-lease with the new owners, and will to continue to run the property until December 2020.
Big River Station is the third pastoral lease in the Roper Valley to sell this year, after Mt McMinn Station sold in June and Flying Fox Station in November.
"We have managed to sell Mt McMinn prior to auction, now Big River, and Flying Fox has sold, so half of the Roper region has transacted just this year," Ms Ross said.
"And all of those [stations in the Roper region] have transacted in the last three to four years.
"2018 has been a great opportunity for a lot of family vendors who have been able to sell their properties.
"We have seen other families looking to invest, so entry-level properties have sold."
