On the home grain: CBH Group chews the cud over future of Muchea farm touted to one day be a wheat bin

CBH Group is still chewing the cud over how and when to develop a property at Muchea, with a $5 million-plus farm bought by the cooperative three years ago currently being used to run cattle.

A herd of what appears to be Angus and Red Angus cattle have been happily grazing on pastures at Bergalla Farms, a 132ha propery 65km north of Perth that CBH acquired around December 2018.

The bush rumour mill went into overdrive when CBH bought the property on Brand Highway, with farmers speculating it could one day become a new receival or storage site for grain, a freight depot, or a depot for CBH Fertiliser.

The site is strategically located at to the west of the intersection of the Great Northern, Brand and Tonkin Highways — just north of the Muchea townsite.

It is also a stone’s throw from the 150ha Muchea Industrial Park and the nearby BP service station, road train assembly area, and the and Muchea Livestock Centre.

The farm also has rail frontage, with access to the 450km Midland-Geraldton line which connects to the Kwinana Grain Terminal.

While CBH Group has been tight-lipped on its plans for the site, some of the options the grain handler and marketer is weighing up for the site have been spilled in various documents published by the State Government.

The Muchea Industrial Park Structure Plan, released by the Department of Planning Lands and Heritage in April last year, claims “planning by CBH to establish a grain handling and distribution facility at Muchea” could drive demand for land in the area.

In November 2019, the DLPH’s Muchea Industrial Park Land Demand and Economic Assessment said the acquisition was part of CBH’s plan to rationalise its network and could be the new home for the grain handler’s Forrestfield facilities, which do not have rail access and can’t be accessed by RAV10 vehicles.

The document said CBH’s development would be a “specialist, grain-related intermodal agri-precinct”, with a high likelihood of additional “complementary industries” including value-adding, feed milling or freight services.

Segregated grain bulk receival and storage for 400,000t of grain for rail delivery to the CBH Kwinana Grain Terminal, the receival of containerised hay for export, and outturn of grain for the domestic feed market were also touted in the document as CBH plans.

Requests for additional details — including who the site is leased to and what CBH intends to do at the property — by Countryman have been turned down both at the time of purchase and this month.

In a statement, a spokesman for CBH this month said the “Muchea land purchase provides CBH with optionality for future use”.

In January 2018, then-CBH CEO Jimmy Wilson said the farm was bought for “a good price”.

While CBH would not disclose the price, realestate.com shows it last sold for $5.45m in 2016.

A few weeks later, then-chair Wally Newman said it was an excellent investment that came after two years of research and could appreciate sixfold by leasing parts to other businesses.

He said it could be developed over 30 years at a pinch point where road and rail intersected.

Muchea is the final destination of North Link, a 37km free-flowing carriageway built for $1.02b.