By Beckie Wilson
A prime piece of rural Masterton land has been sold to a Kinloch farmer for an undisclosed sum.
Bramerton Station on Castlepoint Rd 14km from Masterton, is a 998-hectare sheep and beef station.
The rateable value of the station is $5,900,000, according to Wairarapa Combined District Map Viewer, but is thought to have been sold for much more.
Mike Phillips has bought the farm under the Roydon family trust, and expects to move there by the end of February where he plans to eventually retire.
“It’s something really special, and is a privilege to be able to own it,” Mr Phillips said.
“Why I bought the farm, well it’s a trophy farm, it’s lovely.”
Mr Phillips was part of a crayfish venture at Castlepoint many years ago. While driving back and forward down Castlepoint Rd he said he would look in at the station and think I was such a nice place.
Mr Phillips said he had been farming all his life, however coming from Porirua his family wasn’t in the farming sector.
“I’d always wanted to be a farmer, so I had to start from the bottom.”
Two years after finishing school at St Patricks in Wellington and having saved enough money, he went to study at Lincoln University. From there he went shepherding and worked on Orongaronga Station on the Wellington head, and was the manager at Patunga Station near Taumarunui, then shore sheep for a year or two at Waikanae.
Then in 1982, he was successful in getting a ballot block from the Lands and Survey Kawakawa block at Kinloch, near Taupo.
“That’s when it all began.”
He now owns a sheep farm in Kinloch, and a high-country sheep station near Kaikoura, both under the family trust.
Mr Phillips said he has a bit of a soft spot for the area being someone from over the hill in Wellington.
He said he will continue to breed Romneys from Motu-nui Romney’s in Whareama for replacements and prime lambs, and will trade the cattle.
The station dates from to the 1860’s when the original 3146 acres was owned by the Mace family, from England.
Then in 1990, the vendor Mr Mike Dossor and his family bought the 787-hectare station under the company title Comtrad Holdings Ltd.
Mr Dossor restored the property by replacing old fences and gates, fixing a major stock bridge, renovated the homestead and other houses on the property, while maintaining water systems.
The homestead was fully renovated and won the New Zealand House of the Year Awards in 1998.
Mr Dosser bought the neighbouring Pounui block in 2013, bringing the sheep and beef station to 998 hectares.
Mr Dosser died earlier this year, leaving the farm in the family name to a brother and four children.
Lindsay Watts of Bayleys Wairarapa said the station was only on the market for about two months but was a very competitive sale, with several interested parties.
Mr Watts and Rob Deal campaigned the property together.
“We had people from all over the country looking at it, as well as people abroad.
“The place has superb infrastructure and is a tribute to the late Mike Dossor and manager, Clark Goddard,” Mr Watts said.
He said from Bayleys point of view it was a privilege to work with the family, and enjoyable to sell a beautifully presented property.
SIDEBAR:
The property’s infrastructure includes:
A homestead with a tennis court and billiard room, two three-bedroom houses, two woolsheds with a total of 8 shearing plants, an implement shed, stock water pump, 80 hectares of pine trees.
