{"id":884260,"date":"2026-09-08T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884260\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:06:11","slug":"nts-benmara-cattle-station-sold-for-millions-less-than-expected-as-carbon-dreams-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884260\/","title":{"rendered":"NT’s Benmara cattle station sold for millions less than expected as carbon dreams crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benmara Station in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory has sold for $26 million, which is $14 million less than its last sale price in 2023.<\/p>\n

The 450,000 hectare station has been bought by UK-based livestock producer Shaun Davis, trading under the newly formed Benmara Land Holdings.<\/p>\n

Located about 100 kilometres west of the Queensland border, the station had been “largely destocked” over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

According to documents from the NT Land Titles Office, the property settled on September 2, ending a very complicated period of ownership.<\/p>\n

\"cattle<\/p>\n

Benmara Station on the Barkly Tablelands was bought in 2023 for $40 million. (ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n

Carbon dreams over<\/p>\n

Benmara was last purchased in 2023 for $40 million bare (no cattle) by Sam Mitchell, the founder of Sydney-based investment company WealthCheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was one in a series of significant NT property purchases by WealthCheck, including Conways Station<\/a> in Arnhem Land for $14.5 million, and also Maryfield and Limbunya Stations for more than $100 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WealthCheck and its US investment partner Hartree had plans to run a large carbon project on Benmara.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The station had a carbon project registered with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) based on the controversial Human Induced Regeneration (HIR) methodology,<\/a> where the landholder makes changes to allow vegetation on the property to regrow and store more carbon.<\/p>\n

According to the CER website, the Benmara carbon project never generated any carbon credits and the project was revoked in December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The HIR methodology has since been shelved by the federal government<\/a>, with no new projects to be registered under the method.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

In 2024, WealthCheck went into liquidation and Benmara was listed for sale in 2025, “priced to sell at $35 million or nearest offer”.<\/p>\n

ABC Rural contacted CBRE Agribusiness, but agents were not able to comment on the sale to Mr Davis.<\/p>\n

On its website, CBRE said Benmara was offered with an estimated carrying capacity of 17,500 adult equivalents, although the property had been “largely destocked over the past 18 months”.<\/p>\n

“The property offers ample potential for further development,” it said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Maryfield and Limbunya Stations, previously owned by WealthCheck, have been relisted for sale this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Drone<\/p>\n

Benmara is a 450,000 hectare station and was bought in 2026 with an estimated carrying capacity of 17,500 adult equivalents. (Supplied: CBRE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benmara Station in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory has sold for $26 million, which is $14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2655,64,63,8962,454049,99,66383,211529,8867,12936,454051,45433,454050],"class_list":["post-884260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-abc","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beef","tag-benmara","tag-business","tag-cattle-station","tag-country-hour","tag-northern-territory","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-shaun-davis","tag-sold","tag-wealthcheck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}