SYDNEY: A small, picturesque Australian village has been listed for sale, attracting interest from China and Singapore, with its new buyer set to own dozens of homes, a lake full of fish and 35 Highland cattle.

Property agents said they hoped the 145-hectare (358.3-acre) Tarraleah village in the heart of Tasmania state would fetch up to Aus$13 million ($10 million).

“I’ve never sold a town before,” property agent John Blacklow, who has been selling hotels for more than three decades, told AFP.

Since the village was placed on the market late last week, it has attracted prospective buyers — individuals as well as companies — from Australia and also China, Hong Kong and Singapore, Blacklow said.

The village in the Central Highlands was originally built in the 1920s and ‘30s to support 2,000 hydroelectric workers, but as the dams and power stations servicing southern Tasmania became automated, staff were no longer required.

Property developer Julian Homer eventually bought the entire village, which had become run down, restoring the art-deco buildings to turn it into a tourism-focused site.

“He’s finally finished his program of renovation, which has taken him 13 years, so the whole of the town — all the 33 buildings and infrastructure — have been done up to a very high-class standard,” Blacklow said.