Victorian farmland: Top 20 biggest landholders in the state revealed
A large expanse of Victorian farmland — the size of a European country — is owned by overseas interests and a top Aussie legal mind it has been revealed.
Victoria
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a billionaire Swedish Count, one of King Charles’ best mates and Australia’s leading legal eagle are among the biggest land owners in Victoria.
An investigation by The Weekly Times into Who Owns Australia’s Farms can reveal 20 of the biggest landholders in the state control more than 2700sq km of farmland – an area bigger than Luxembourg.
The revelation comes amid growing demand for farmland from global billionaires and funds as well as from domestic families and farming companies with fists full of cash following successive years of record rural commodity returns and improved seasonal conditions.
Headihas spent about $6 billion on Australian land and water assets, including about $1.5 billion in Victoria.
Its portfolio of almost 320sq km in Victoria includes 30 dairy farms in Gippsland and the state’s north and southwest, 120sq km of orchards in the Sunraysia region and four grain farms near Boort.
The second-biggest investor from a value perspective is the Robert Costa-backed goFARM, which has amassed a portfolio of more than 230sq km across four aggregations in northern Victoria which, combined with water entitlements and operations in southern NSW and Tasmania, are worth an estimated $850 million.
Victoria’s biggest landholder in terms of area is the South Australian-based AJ&PA McBride pastoral company, whose Telopea Downs aggregation in western Victoria spans 476sq km, followed by Canada’s Fiera Comox with an interest in more than 400sq km across several farms in the Western District, Wimmera and southern Mallee.
Other prominent landholders include Melbourne KC Allan Myers, whose Dunkeld Pastoral Company spans more than 10 farms and 127sq km in the Western District, the Australian born, UK-based hedge-fund billionaire Lord Michael Hintze and Swedish Count Carl Gustaf Wachtmeister.
Lord Hintze, who was given a front-row seat at last weekend’s royal coronation, owns two properties in Victoria – the 28sq km Cheviot Hills at Penshurst and the 29sq km Minjah at Hawkesdale – as part of his MH Premium Farms empire.
Count Wachtmeister owns the historic 48sq km Mt Elephant Station at Derrinallum through his Ingleby Farms business.
According to the Foreign Investment Review Board’s most recent agriculture report, about 6690sq km of Victorian farmland is owned or partly owned by foreign interests, the bulk of which is in the forestry sector (4180sq km) followed by crops (1190sq km) and livestock (740sq km).
Victorian farmer and National Farmers’ Federation vice president David Jochinke said foreign investment in Australian agriculture had “always been a part of the landscape”.
“It does cycle in its prominence however agriculture is always in desperate need of capital and the foreigners seem to be the ones willing to step up recently,” Mr Jochinke said.
“Saying that, ag hitting that $90 billion farmgate value has given Australian farmers the capacity to invest in their operations and expand their businesses.”
Rural property specialist Danny Thomas, of LAWD, said “corporate farming families just made so much money in the past three years, there are a number who are looking to grow and grow aggressively”.
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