The Building

The Cattle Property and Cattle Herd
– “Magic Stone” –

The 17th July 2008 was a hugely significant milestone for the Queensland Polocrosse Association Inc., with the official settlement on “Magic Stone” – the cattle property the QPA had just purchased.

All polocrosse members should be extremely proud of the successful purchase of “Magic Stone”. It is a direct result of donations by the polocrosse members that have given free agistment for the polocrosse cattle over the past 10 years. This purchase has been totally funded from the QPA cattle enterprise.

How did we get to here?

In 1998, the then QPA Patron, the late Arthur Earle, donated 130 heifers to the Queensland Polocrosse Association with the comment that – “if you manage this herd wisely it could buy the Association a cattle property one day!”

Arthur insisted the responsibility for the overall management of these cattle be given to Bob Sargood. He had to find polocrosse members willing to run these cattle on their properties and coordinate their movement around the state. Initially Bob distributed these heifers to volunteer members’ properties where they were joined and run in their herds at no cost to the QPA. These members then sent the fattened cattle to the sale yards or meatworks with their own cattle turnoff.

In 2005 Bob handed the chair of the Cattle Committee over to Philip Hughes. He arranged for all the breeders to be moved to a leased paddock at Ron & Jenny Byriel’s property “Muggine” at Bauhinia where all the cows could be run in one herd. The steers and heifers remained where they were, growing out on agistment donor properties. The purpose of this move was to improve the herd quality and increase the number of cows, with the longer term goal of purchasing a property as a permanent base for the breeders.

The huge success of the QPA cattle enterprise would not have been possible without the generous donations of agistment, freighting and herd management that has been made, and are still being made, by members. Without this generous support from agistment donor members this property purchase could not have happened.

The Property
“Magic Stone” has an area of 948 acres in two Freehold Lots and is located 15kms west of Chinchilla with frontage to the Warrego Highway and Cameby Road.

One third of the property is heavy Brigalow soil (partly blade-ploughed), one third Brigalow-belah, one third lighter ridge country with good water run-off capacity. The pastures are in excellent condition with a good stand of improved perennial grasses.

“Magic Stone” is extremely well watered by 9 dams, one of which is very large. All dams have recently been de-silted and are presently full.

It is subdivided into 5 main paddocks and 6 small paddocks with a substantial lane running through one half of the property. All the fencing is in excellent condition.

The property has a set of cattle yards with an under cover crush. There is a 60m x 40m machinery shed and a 8m x 14m insulated 2 bay lock-up garage.

There is a modern, open-plan, 4 bedroom air-conditioned brick home, set in an established garden, with a view to the north over the property.

Property Management
It is the Cattle Committee’s goal to use “Magic Stone” as a permanent base for the breeder herd with all young cattle distributed to agistment donors to grow out as in the past. The stocking rate will be kept at a fairly conservative level. They believe that once “Magic Stone” is paid for it will have the capacity to make a significant cash injection into the QPA annually for player development.

Rent of the House
The house will be rented out under strict tenancy guidelines with the rent managed by a professional agent in Chinchilla. There is also an Optus tower on the property that pays an annual rental.

Guidelines for Members