Clive Palmer’s Mamelon Station ‘to be bought by local grazier’

Clive Palmer’s central Queensland cattle property has not sold at auction, after being passed in at $1.5m.

Mamelon Station, a 6258ha beef cattle breeding and grazing operation west of Rockhampton, was bought by Clive Palmer for $8.3m in 2010. Picture: Colliers International.

Clive Palmer’s central Queensland cattle property has not sold at auction, after being passed in at $1.5m.

One of his companies bought Mamelon Station — a 6258ha beef cattle breeding and grazing operation west of Rockhampton — in 2010 for $8.3m.

It was ordered to be auctioned today by administrators FTI Consulting, in an effort to pay off debts of more than $100m owned by a company connected to Mr Palmer’s Townsville nickel refinery.

Colliers International were running the auction in Rockhampton this afternoon. Bidding stopped at $1.5m, less than the reserve, and then the auction ended. It’s understood private negotiations are now occurring with prospective buyers.

Meanwhile, FTI Consulting has sold three shiploads of nickel ore, worth $3m and originally bought for the Townsville refinery, to Chinese buyers. Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel Sales wrested control of the plant from the administrators this month, but the refinery remains shut and QNS told FTI it didn’t want the ore.

The MP for the federal seat of Fairfax has said he is unlikely to reopen the Yabulu refinery until the end of July, leaving 787 sacked workers desperate for work. FTI Consulting have appealed to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to exercise her discretion and activate the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme early, which would see workers receive some of their $73m in entitlements.

Currently, they must wait until Queensland Nickel falls into liquidation.

Ex-workers will confer with Australian Workers Union secretary Ben Swan and Maurice Blackburn’s industrial relations law specialists in Townsville today. Mr Swan said workers’ entitlements would be at the top of the agenda. “It’s natural to expect that people are going to have questions about when they can expect to be paid their entitlements,” he told The Australian.