Insurance company QBE is seeking documents from the Brinkworth family about a fire at Lucindale in January
QBE Insurance is seeking documents from the Brinkworth family and access to a property owned by them about a fire at Lucindale in January.
An insurance company is seeking a court order to access documents relating to backburning and access to land owned by the Brinkworth pastoralist family “to conduct an inspection” about the origin of a large South-East fire.
QBE Insurance, in an originating Supreme Court application, is seeking documents and access from The Estate of the Late Thomas Brinkworth and Patricia Brinkworth.
The January 11 Blackford fire destroyed about 14,000ha and threatened to engulf the small township of Lucindale before it was contained.
Large numbers of sheep and cattle were killed, and hundreds of kilometres of fencing were destroyed.
The blaze was brought under control by 200 Country Fire Service volunteers, supported by aerial bombers, on January 12.
SA Police at the time said they investigated the cause of the fire and deemed it unsuspicious and undetermined.
The Advertiser reported at the time that the blaze started at Mount Scott Conservation Park, east of Kingston SE, before being pushed by strong north-westerly winds towards Lucindale and Naracoorte.
QBE is seeking orders that the Brinkworths, within 28 days of the order, provide copies of all documents in their possession relating to the Blackford fire.
The insurance company has requested copies of any documents that include, but are not limited to, records or evidence of backburning on the Brinkworths’ properties and land at Blackford from May 2020 until the fire.
It is further seeking access to the property for an expert to “conduct an inspection in order to investigate the location of the origin of the fire”.
Until his death in August last year, Thomas Brinkworth, 83, was among the nation’s wealthiest pastoralists.
He had an estimated net worth of $367m the year before his death.
Mr and Mrs Brinkworth operated more than one million hectares of land spread across 100 properties, including Banff Station at Salt Creek, Cortina Station and Didicoolum Station in Kingston SA and Frome Downs at Yunta.
The reclusive cattle baron called Watervalley Station, 50km west of Kingston in SA, home.
In 2018 he stepped in to save Kingston’s famous 17m-tall crayfish – Larry the Lobster – from being moved to Western Australia.
Mr Brinkworth made his start in farming aged 19 with the aid of a loan from his father for a five-acre property he bought to run a piggery.
It grew to become one of the country’s biggest operations, which he sold to fund a tilt at large scale cattle and sheep farming.
In 2016, as part of a consortium called BBHO, the Brinkworth family, whose business interests are now run by Thomas’s son Angas, lobbed an eventually unsuccessful $385m bid for the Kidman cattle empire, which was eventually bought by iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese company Shanghai CRED.
Angas Brinkworth on Wednesday declined to comment about the court matter.
QBE said in a statement that it, and Elders Insurance, were supporting all customers affected by the fire.
“We will move into the recovery phase once all claims are finalised,” the statement said.
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