Hurricane Hill Quarry – located 12km southwest of Culcairn, New South Wales – was purchased for $4.5 million at an auction in Albury, NSW, on 16 September.
The purchaser, Tranternet Pty Ltd, a company with interests in the extractive industries, plans to hold the property as a long-term investment.
Ruralco Property agent Michael Everard had expected the fully operational quarry, which was offered with all extractive licences and permits in place, to attract offers in the range of $3.5 million to $4 million.
“It was certainly one of the more unusual properties I have been called upon to auction,” Everard said. ”Our marketing campaign attracted a lot of interest with the sale price achieved at the high end of expectations.
“Long term the quarry may offered potential waste disposal capacity as well,” he added.
The quarry has been operational for 80 years and produces crushed rock ranging from 7mm aggregate up to 63mm rail ballast.
The 110ha site contains about nine million tonnes of unquarried rhyodacite rock. Recent annual production volumes were around 250,000 tonnes, although there is permission in place to expand output to as much as 750,000 tonnes.
A member of the Boral group has operated the site under licence for the past 20 years and pays a royalty for each tonne extracted. This agreement has a further 12 years to run.
The quarry is 50km north of Albury and is a potential beneficiary from regional infrastructure projects, particularly roads and railways.
The land was previously owned by John Pumpa and had been in his family for generations before it was sold to resolve a family inheritance matter.
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Operational quarry could fetch $4m at auction