ONE of Australia's biggest farming operations is up for sale and tipped to fetch a record price.

Carrington Farms, a 57,370ha property on the Queensland-NSW border, is expected to sell for between $300 million and $400 million.

The property stretches 80km alongside the Macintyre River and holds one of Australia's largest water licence portfolios.

The vendor, Falcon Corporate Advisory, expects it will be Australia's biggest ever rural sale, with the property already attracting international and local interest.

Executive director David Wells said Carrington Farms produced cotton, coarse grains and oilseeds, as well as cattle and sheep, and had performed well, even in difficult times.

The operation had been in the same family for 25 years, and had never before been on the market as a single entity, Mr Wells said.

"This is simply a generational change," he said.

"The owner wants to move on with other things in her life."

The sale comes as Australia's biggest irrigator, the southwest Queensland cotton property Cubbie Station, failed to attract a bid acceptable to its administrators.

The group that owns that, drought-stricken, property was forced into voluntary administration last year, owing its bankers $320 million.

The federal government declined offers to buy Cubbie Station in order to divert its irrigation into the Murray-Darling river system.

Administrators McGrathNicol say they remain in talks with potential buyers.