Snowy Wilderness on the Barry Way south of Jindabyne – after more than two decades Justin and Delia McIntosh have sold the tourism retreat and brumby sanctuary they built from scratch, with new owners due to take over in April. Photo: Belle Property.
For more than 20 years, Justin and Delia McIntosh have called one of the Snowy Mountains’ most remote corners home, running wild brumbies alongside guided horse-riding guests on a 6200-acre property bordering Kosciuszko National Park (KNP).
Now, after more than two decades, they have sold up and that place they call home – Snowy Wilderness – is changing hands.
Asked what prompted the decision, Mr McIntosh’s answer was characteristically understated.
“Age,” he said.
For the McIntoshes, the move into the alpine region in 2004 was initially an escape from Sydney – a quieter life, a handful of horses, nothing more.
In interviews marking the December listing, Mr McIntosh recalled how quickly that changed.
Within a year, guided riding and accommodation had followed at the Ingebirah property, and what began as a private retreat gradually became one of the high country’s most distinctive tourism operations.
Its profile grew to the point where it featured on SBS’s Going Places with Ernie Dingo.
The property went to auction in December and according to Belle Property, passed in on a vendor bid of $4.75 million before being sold to a bidder shortly after the hammer fell.
Settlement is due 15 April, with the final sale price undisclosed.
Snowy Wilderness is a substantial holding by any measure.
Rising from 600 metres to 1400 metres in elevation, the property takes in nine fenced paddocks, 11 dams, three established campsites and a historic hut dating back more than a century.
Accommodation spans a three-bedroom homestead – built from locally milled pine and handmade mud bricks – two purpose-built lodges, a stone cottage and a function centre capable of hosting up to 100 guests for retreats or events.
A DA-approved community title subdivision of 16 lots added a development dimension that broadened its appeal to investors as well as operators.
But the infrastructure tells only part of the story.
Unlike the ski resorts and lakeside accommodation that define the Snowy Mountains for most visitors, its location along the Barry Way traded on remoteness and immersion rather than convenience.
Mr McIntosh has been an outspoken critic of culling programs within the national park, and Snowy Wilderness also doubled as a sanctuary for around 55 wild horses, or brumbies, alongside its tourism operation – a stance that has won the property a loyal following among those who regard the horses as integral to the mountains’ character.
The listing attracted interest from buyers across the spectrum – tourism operators, rural producers and those seeking a private landholding of scale and significance in one of Australia’s most iconic alpine landscapes.
The incoming owners are understood to have purchased Snowy Wilderness as a going concern – meaning the trails, the horses, the brumby sanctuary and the tourism operation will continue to run as the McIntoshes intended, rather than being redeveloped or repurposed.
“The new owners intend to continue the Snowy Wilderness activities,” Mr McIntosh confirmed.
