Gina Rinehart proud owner legendary Kidman cattle empire

IRON lady-turned-cattle queen Gina Rinehart has fallen in love again, with the romance of the Aussie outback turning her misty eyed.

Gina Rinehart has turned cattle queen, falling in love with the romance of the outback.

GINA RINEHART has fallen in love again.

The iron lady has turned cattle queen and the romance of the outback has her misty eyed.

She’s the proud owner of the legendary Kidman cattle empire with her Chinese business partner and fellow billionaire GUI GUOJIE, who was with her as she stepped onto the red carpet in Melbourne at the CEO magazine awards as chairperson of the year.

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“It’s so exciting, it really is,” said Australia’s richest woman.

Mrs R, as she is referred to among her entourage, was talking about her outback empire, not just being named as the nation’s top chairperson for the second time.

Rinehart was carrying a bejewelled clutch and a smile as wide as the endless Outback grazed by her thousands of head of cattle.

It’s not so far away for a woman whose life is grounded in the rough red soil.

The mining magnate hates the spotlight, but told Page 13 she now makes more time to think of herself.

“Things were so difficult for our company for quite a long time, now actually because I am older I am trying to do a bit more for myself,” Rinehart said.

“When I got into the hotel today I had the luxury of having a cup of tea before I started getting ready and I thought to myself, ‘I’m slowing down’,” she said.

Gina Rinehart is the proud owner of the legendary Kidman cattle empire. Picture: supplied

Her phalanx of security guards don’t think so. They have trouble keeping up with a woman who lives life at the front of the pack.

This remarkable woman says she is spending more time working on “my face” before bursting into laughter, saying, “I don’t mean plastic surgery. I’ve never had that!

“I’m just working a bit harder getting my hair done before an event.”

It’s a cruel fact that women at the top of their business game are scrutinised for how they look, which is at odds with their male counterparts who are blissfully left to bulge out of their suits, and believe us when we tell you we saw plenty of fat cats bursting at the seams at the CEO Awards at Crown’s Palladium on Wednesday night.

“When I was young I didn’t have to worry, which was really gorgeous not having to get the hair done,” Rinehart laughed.

There is no bulldust about Rinehart’s plans for the future. She has reached back into the past to acquire the Kidman cattle stations.

The Queen of the Outback and her Chinese business partner paid $386.5 million for the Kidman cattle stations, which form an arc across Australia’s fabled north, the stuff of legend and fortunes won and lost.

Gina Rinehart has fallen in love again, with the romance of the outback leaving her misty eyed.

Rinehart was with her business jackaroos at the CEO awards: boss of Hancock Prospecting TED WATROBA, head of Hancock agriculture GARRY KORTE and Olympic gold medallist MACK HORTON, who was another glittering, albeit muscly, handbag for the night representing Swimming Australia, one of the beneficiaries of the Hancock sponsorship largesse.

“We’ve had cattle stations for quite some time,” said the daughter of LANG HANCOCK, who discovered Western Australia’s mountains of iron ore.

“We think we may be the oldest continual cattle station owners in Australia. We have been going longer than the Kidmans.”

SIR SIDNEY KIDMAN and Rinehart’s maternal grandfather, JAMES NICHOLAS, were long-time friends and business partners.

“Kidman started in 1889. My family went up there in the second half of the 1880s, decades before.”

Then it was forget the blow dries and back to business for the Queen of the Outback.

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