Picturesque Ellerston, in the New South Wales Upper Hunter Valley is the heartland for the Ellerston Pastoral Company.

Beginning at the headwaters of the Hunter and Manning Rivers at the foot of the Barrington Tops Wilderness Area, the Ellerston aggregation carries up to 11,000 Hereford cattle, selling steers and heifers twice yearly in nearby Scone.

Ellerston Pastoral Company, as a wool growing enterprise, runs up to 6,500 Merino wethers sourced from the Coonamble and Walgett areas in central NSW.

Sir Frank Packer and Mr J. D. MacLeod purchased Ellerston in 1972 as an addition to their Hunters Vale and Tomalla properties originally purchased in 1956.

The original holding was first owned by Mrs Keith who sold the 259 ha grant four years later to H. C. Sempill who named the property Ellerston. Mr Sempill sold the block in 1846 to the Wentworth Family. Then in 1853, the White Family purchased Ellerston, increasing its size to 40,500 ha running 2.5 sheep per hectare on its lush pastures.

The White Family continue to own Belltrees to this day, which is some 50 kilometres from Ellerston. A land stock route was used to drove the sheep from Ellerston to Belltrees for shearing rather than carting wool on the bullock wagons across many treacherous river crossings.

Subdivisions and land resumptions in the years to follow saw Ellerston reduced to 8,910 ha. The Ellerston Pastoral Company reversed this decline in size by the acquisition of Sunny Brae, Brumlo, Zanzibar and Hunters Valley from 1974 to 1985, which swelled the aggregation to its current 27,135 ha.

Contact

Ellerston Pastoral Company
via Scone, New South Wales, 2337
Ph: 02 6540 7111
Fax: 02 6546 5172
Email: ellerston@pastoral.com

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