Australia’s biggest landholders: Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello rise to the top after 3.26 million ha purchase

Billionaire Gina Rinehart is no longer Australia’s biggest landholder after a significant station sell-off. Who now holds the title?

Two mates from Central Australia are poised to become the nation’s biggest landholders.

Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello – whose families operate Crown Point Pastoral Company – have been confirmed as buyers of four stations, totalling 3.26 million hectares, from billionaire mining giant Gina Rinehart’s expansive Northern Australia portfolio.

Selling agents Elders late last week confirmed that Crown Point had purchased Ruby Plains and Sturt Creek stations, covering 800,000 hectares in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, and was in the final stages of securing Innamincka Station (1.36 million hectares) and Macumba Station (1.1 million hectares) in South Australia as well as the Phoenix Park feedlot (3443 hectares) from Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture and partly Chinese-backed S Kidman and Co businesses.

The purchases take Crown Point’s holdings to 7.2 million hectares, making it Australia’s biggest landholder – a title that previously belonged to Mrs Rinehart whose holdings peaked at almost 10 million hectares.

As well as the stations sold to Crown Point, Mrs Rinehart has offloaded the 147,500-hectare Aroona Station to the Di Giorgio family from South Australia, the 203,142-hectare Nerrima Station to the Emanuel family from Western Australia and the 171,000-hectare Willeroo Station to Brett Cattle.

Her Riveren and Inverway stations, totalling 555,400 hectares, remain on the market.

The selldown has seen Mrs Rinehart slip to number three on the national landholding rankings, with 6.2 million hectares, behind Crown Point, the Australian Agricultural Company (6.4 million hectares), but ahead of Jumbuck Pastoral Company (6.15 million hectares) and the North Australian Pastoral Company (6.1 million hectares).

Crown Point’s existing portfolio includes the 1.65 million hectare Clifton Hills Station on the Birdsville Track, purchased in 2019 for $45-$50 million, the 1.05 million Andado Station aggregation near Alice Springs, the 662,500-hectare Pandie Pandie Station on the Birdsville Track, the 324,000-hectare Maryvale Station and the 209,000-hectare Crown Point near Alice Springs.

Mr Oldfield is a well-known horse trainer and runs the Tanami Transport business.

Australia’s biggest landholder Viv Oldfield. Picture: Chloe Erlich

Elders real estate executive general manager Tom Russo said the sale of the Hancock country had drawn interest from a global field of investors.

“It really is exciting to see such a strong level of confidence and willingness to invest in the future of northern Australian beef production from such successful and well-credentialed Australian family owned businesses,” Mr Russo said in a statement. “They are well positioned to help to feed our neighbours in Asia and beyond, who need our high quality protein produced in clean environments to feed their own populations, a need growing exponentially”.

Originally published as Australia’s biggest landholders: Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello rise to the top after 3.26 million ha purchase