Author Description

The End of an Era. Around the turn of the last century the owners and controllers of Australia's largest mixed farming property, held in 11 stations at Esperance, made a decision to sell. They did not believe the existing individual ex-pioneer farmers of Esperance held capacity to acquire this land, so they amalgamated the 11 stations into five and offered it to the world, with little response. And so, it got back to basics. The land was opened for tender with guideline pricing provided. This allowed individual buyers to bid for what land they wanted. The result of the change was that Esperance's first and early second-generation farmers readily bought over 90% of that land being some 123 individual lots averaging around 1,000 hectares per lot. This makes for a good story of a lost opportunity of substantial proportion on one side and a once in a lifetime opportunity that wasn't neglected by the other side. The minnows swallowed the whale.