THROUGH the rolling hills of the Upper Hunter lies a property with an attention to detail that is second to none.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is the brain child of the late media giant Kerry Packer.
The 30,000 hectare property, Ellerston, is home to some of the world's best polo facilities, a golf course, a go-kart track and let's not forget, prime agricultural land.
When travelling from Scone, just under an hour away, Ellerston manager Robert Teague will tell you to "drive about 75 kilometres along the Gundy Road and you'll see it".
No truer words have ever been spoken as the picturesque polo fields first grab your attention followed by the overwhelming grandeur of the front gates.
From there, a friendly smile of a security guard awaits to welcome invited guests into one of Australian agriculture's crown jewels.
READ ALSO:
Normally, the inquisitive eyes of journalists are not allowed behind the black fences of Ellerston.
However, Mr Teague allowed ACM the rare opportunity to take a first-hand look at some of Ellerston's industry-leading practices, such as the Ellerston Onassis Polo facility and the livestock program, consisting of mixed breeds of cattle and sheep.
Golf course in top ten in Australia
It is such a diverse property, spread across two climate types and including polo playing, breeding and training facilities and a golf course, which is rated the sixth best in Australia and in the best 30 in the world, Mr Teague said.
To ensure things run smoothly, most of Ellerston's 120 staff members and their families live on the property.
"All of the staff take a lot of pride in their work and treat it as their own home, which I think makes all the difference," Mr Teague said.
"We've got a pretty large staff of around 120 including contractors, so we actually have our own tradesman plus a butcher.
"He bakes the pies, sausage rolls, bread and we slaughter some of our own animals as well. Our own cattle, sheep and pigs, which we get from an off-site contractor, are slaughtered here for our staff's rations."
However, the staff benefits extend well beyond the paddock to plate meals.
"Everyone works together and 80 to 90 per cent live on the property," Mr Teague said.
Having all of those employees here means we have a store, a fine-dining restaurant, pools, a gold-class cinema and a go-kart track, which is also rated as one of the best in the country.
- Ellerston manager Robert Teague
"Having all of those employees here means we have a store, a fine-dining restaurant, pools, a gold-class cinema and a go-kart track, which is also rated as one of the best in the country.
"Basically, it means that the younger guys don't need to leave the big black fence because they have everything they need right here."
Mr Teague, a 30-year employee of the Packers and into his 13th year as manager of Ellerston, said while the livestock and staff amenities were second to none, it was the polo programs, which featured more than 400 ponies and a breeding facility, that stole the show.
"There are six polo fields and they are rated the best there is, with the Home Field being rated the best in the Southern Hemisphere," he said
"We have two polo events a year, in March and October.
"The public is welcome everyday of the polo tournaments and in my mind there is no better event in Australia than finals day on the Home Field."
Such is the pride still taken in Ellerston by the Packer family, it is the final resting place of Kerry Packer.
"There is still a very strong connection with the Packer family after it was established and built by Mr Kerry Packer in the 1980s," Mr Teague said.
"It his final resting place, but I would have to kill you if I told you where it was."
Operation takes an army to run
"Ellerston itself is 500m above sea level with 28-inch (700mm) rainfall, where we do a lot of our growing and breeding of our livestock.
"Our high country, Tomalla, is 1250m above sea level and [gets] 45 inches (1125mm) of rainfall a year. It is adjoining, only 25 minutes away, but they are two completely separate land types."
In the higher country they have seven rotations of just under 1300ha.
"We plant a perennial rye/clover mix that lasts four years where we have constant encroachment of an introduced weed called Scotch broom. With the remainder we plant a fescue/prairie/clover/chicory/plantain mix, which we hope to get 10 years out of."
Additionally, they also manage the stock with rotational grazing, rotating cattle herds into different paddocks every five to seven days and they also road roll the paddocks to ensure they are smooth.
Good pastures and paddocks are the foundation for the operation, especially when in a standard year (i.e. not drought affected) they breed about 4000 cows.
"We have the water and the pastures, which we invest heavily in at Ellerston and if you've got the pastures you can do a lot with your cattle. It gives you options," Mr Teague said.
As a rule of thumb, they designed Tomalla so one rotational block consists of four 35ha paddocks around which they graze 400 medium size cattle, targeting an average gain of 1kg/day.
In the lower country, on Ellerston, they have 12 rotations of just under 2000ha with a planned pasture program.
"We start with oats and rye grass for a year, then a prairie/chicory/plantain/clover pasture for four years, then a pharlaris/fescue/lucerne/clover long term pasture," Mr Teague said.
"We have also started on tropicals, with 300ha in our western-facing, harder soils, which are going well."
"Everything is regenerative, long-term, self sustaining and everything is about trapping the water."
He said it was all about trapping rain where it fell to maximise the potential pasture growth.
Such is the efficiency of Ellerston's pasture program, that despite the region receiving plenty of rain throughout the year, they've not had the run-off yet to fill the dams since they were cleaned out.
"During the drought, we cleaned out 200 dams and despite it being such a good year, only half to three quarters of them are half full or less, while the rest are way less than that," Mr Teague said.
"That's because of ground cover, what we're doing with our pastures, moving cattle constantly and in our opinion, we have got such good grass cover now we are actually stopping the water from reaching the dam.
"There will be a big rain event at some stage, we know it's coming and it will fill our dams but because we have so much grass it will fill our dams with filtered water."
The breeding herd, meanwhile, is based on Curracabark and Ironbark Hereford bulls, Wattletop, Curracabark and Knowla Angus bulls and Palgrove Charolais bulls.
As well as a cattle, Ellerston has diversified by including sheep in its 2020 livestock rotation.
"This year in our trading regime, we have bought 1850 18-micron Merino wethers (Roseville Park blood) from Cunnamulla and Louth for around $160 (a head)," Mr Teague said.
"We brought them in as lambs in the wool (and) shore them the same week the wool market was at its lowest in about five years, but we have retained the wool.
"At this stage, we will look at shearing them again just before we sell them, or sell as them as fat wethers.
"It's a trade, but which way that trade is going to go we just don't know. To me, it is just about us not having all of our eggs in one basket."