Australia’s top landholders certainly aren’t holding back in their quest for growth — to the point where the 20 biggest now farm a combined area of 70 million hectares.

That’s bigger than the entire 64.4 million hectares of France and is more than five times the size of England. It also represents about 9 per cent of Australia’s land mass.

1. OUTBACK BEEF — S KIDMAN & CO

7.92 million hectares

S KIDMAN & Co has been synonymous with Australia’s pastoral and beef industries for 120 years.

Founded by cattle baron Sir Sidney Kidman in 1899, the company is the nation’s biggest landholder with 12 stations spread across 7.92 million hectares in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The properties, operated as pastoral leases, are home to 171,000 cattle producing beef for Australian domestic and export markets.

Based in Adelaide, the company was sold by the Kidman family in 2016 to Australian-Chinese consortium Outback Beef for $386.5 million. Outback Beef is two-thirds owned by Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting (see separate listing) with the minority stake held by China’s Shanghai CRED.

At 1.36 million hectares, Innamincka Station at Leigh Creek is the largest property in the Kidman portfolio, with the capacity to carry up to 13,000 cattle, followed by Macumba Station at Oodnadatta (1.1 million hectares) and the Ruby Plains-Sturt Creek aggregation at Halls Creek in Western Australia (950,000 hectares). S Kidman & Co recorded a $6.2 million net profit in 2017-18 and had assets of $418 million.

2. AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY

7 million hectares

AUSTRALIA’S largest beef producer, AACo was established in 1824 with 404,685 hectares.

Today, the ASX-listed company operates properties and feedlots across seven million hectares in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Purchased in 1979, its largest holding is the 1.22 million-hectare breeding and background property Brunette Downs, north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. It’s most recent acquisition was the 48,600-hectare Thorner Station at Mt Isa, Queensland, in 2015 for about $4 million. AACo also operates Australia’s oldest commercial feedlot, Arounui Feedlot in Dalby, Queensland, which it purchased in 2002.

The company has this year been hit by drought conditions, as well as severe flooding in February, which saw tens of thousands of stock losses across four of its Gulf of Carpentaria properties — Wondoola, Canobie, Dalgonally and Carrum.

The damage to property and infrastructure from the floods is estimated to be $6-$8 million.

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3. NORTH AUSTRALIAN PASTORAL COMPANY

5.94 million hectares

FOUNDED in 1877, the North Australian Pastoral Company — or NAPCO — is well entrenched in Australian pastoral history.

It runs about 200,000 cattle on 13 stations totalling 5.94 million hectares in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The biggest property in its stable is the 1.61 million-hectare Alexandria Station at Camooweal, which was the company’s first acquisition in 1877. There’s also the 1.28 million-hectare Marion Downs at Boulia in Queensland, bought in 1934, with its most recent addition being the 100,000-hectare Portland Downs property at Isisford in Queensland, purchased from Dutch company GP Cattle last year.

To complement its cattle breeding operation, NAPCO operates the Wainui feedlot on Queensland’s Darling Downs.

NAPCO is majority owned by the Queensland Government-backed Queensland Investment Corporation, which paid $400 million for an 80 per cent stake in 2016. Tasmania’s Foster family, which first bought into NAPCO in 1937, owns the remaining 20 per cent.

The company, which suffered losses during the recent Queensland floods, is looking to capitalise on the NAPCO name through branded beef products.

4. VIV OLDFIELD

5 million hectares-plus

WHEN businessman-cum-beef producer Viv Oldfield purchased Australia’s second-biggest cattle station — Clifton Hills — last year, he cemented his name as one of the nation’s top landholders.

Prior to the purchase of the 1.65 million-hectare property, in partnership with Don Costello under the Crown Point Pastoral banner, he was running an estimated 50,000 cattle across seven stations totalling four million hectares. Last year proved a big one for Oldfield, paying a reported $15 million for the 324,000-hectare Maryvale Station at Alice Springs.

His other holdings include the Andado, Horseshoe Bend and New Crown stations near Alice Springs and the 662,500-hectare Pandie Pandie, on the Birdsville Track, purchased in 2008.

Clifton Hills — previously owned by a syndicate of four families — was on the market with an expected price tag of about $50 million.

Oldfield, who is also a Darwin Cup-winning racehorse trainer and owns the Tanami Transport company in Alice Springs, made headlines in 2016 when he was part of a syndicate that made a last-minute bid for S Kidman & Co.

5. JUMBUCK PASTORAL

4.94 million hectares

ONE of Australia’s largest pastoral empires, Jumbuck Pastoral was founded in 1888 by the MacLachlan family.

It started with growing wool at Paratoo Station near Yunta, South Australia, and today is one of the largest sheep and cattle producers in Australia.

Jumbuck Pastoral has 11 properties across 4.94 million hectares in South Australia, Western Australia, NSW and the Northern Territory, with about 237,000 sheep, and 85,000 cattle.

It owns the two largest sheep stations in Australia — Rawlinna in Western Australia and Commonwealth Hill at Coober Pedy in South Australia — with each covering one million hectares. In 2014 it purchased the 541,400-hectare Northern Territory cattle property Killarney for more than $35 million.

Jumbuck was run for 50 years by family patriarch Hugh MacLachlan before he stepped down in 2010, and his sons, Jock and Callum, took over.

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6. WILLIAMS CATTLE COMPANY

4.65 million hectares

OWNED by South Australia’s Tony and Jackie Williams, Williams Cattle Company’s holdings include what is considered the world’s largest cattle station, Anna Creek, which it bought from S Kidman & Co in 2016.

Anna Creek covers 2.4 million hectares on the southwest corner of Lake Eyre and includes The Peake outstation. Williams reportedly paid $16 million for the station, without stock or plant, and instantly doubled the company’s landholding.

In all, Williams Cattle Company owns seven pastoral properties in the far north of South Australia, as well as grazing and cropping land around Carrieton in the Flinders Ranges, with a herd of more than 45,000 cattle.

7. PARAWAY PASTORAL COMPANY

4.42 million hectares

PARAWAY Pastoral Company hasn’t wasted any time in becoming a major player on Australia’s rural property scene.

Since formation in 2007, when its buying spree kicked off with the historic Pooginook Merino stud at Jerilderie in the NSW Riverina, it has put together a portfolio of more than 30 properties totalling 4.42 million hectares.

The properties, in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, have been folded into 23 aggregations or “pastoral businesses” with capacity to run more than 200,000 cattle and 240,000 sheep.

Property sizes range from the 3894-hectare Aberbaldie Station at Walcha in northern NSW to the 1.5 million-hectare Davenport Downs Station at Winton in Queensland.

Paraway produces more than 20,000 tonnes of beef and 1460 tonnes of wool a year and sells 120,000 sheep to processors. It has more than 20,000 hectares of dryland cropping and 2500 hectares of irrigated crops.

Paraway is managed by Macquarie Group Limited. Last year it purchased former Hassad Australia properties Barton Station (8244 hectares) at Moyston in Victoria, Old Bundemar (22,370 hectares) at Trangie NSW and Urawilkie (25,944 hectares) at Coonamble NSW. In addition, it bought the 5314-hectare Moira Runda at Condamine in Queensland from the Brownie family for an undisclosed sum.

8. BROOK PROPRIETORS

3.5 million hectares

ORGANIC beef pioneers David and Nell Brook and their family run about 3.5 million hectares in southern Queensland and South Australia.

The Brooks own five properties including the 870,000-hectare Adria Downs Station, which was the first property David’s father, Bill, purchased in 1939.

In 1996 David and Nell founded OBE Organic, Australia’s oldest organic beef producer, selling Australian organic beef across the world. It produces 270,000kg of organic beef a month.

The Brooks are now the major shareholders of OBE Organic and are also joint owners of the iconic outback pub the Birdsville Hotel.

9. CONSOLIDATED PASTORAL COMPANY

3.36 million hectares

THE once-mighty Consolidated Pastoral Company is loosening its grip as one of the nation’s biggest landholders as its sell-off continues.

This time last year, CPC — formerly owned by the Packer family — was Australia’s largest privately owned beef producer running cattle over 16 properties. It had been listed for sale by majority owner UK-based Terra Firma Capital with estimates the entire portfolio could fetch up to $1 billion.

However, after a buyer could not be found for the entire business, a decision was taken to sell some of the properties separately.

In recent months it has sold Queensland properties Mimong Station (80,000 hectares) and Comley Station (23,000 hectares) to Northern Territory cattle producer Sterling Buntine for a reported $70 million. It came three months after it sold three stations — Auvergne (414,200 hectares), Newry (246,700 hectares) and Argyle Downs (72,022 hectares) — in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to Vietnamese company Clean Agriculture and Tourism in a deal said to be worth $135 million.

Led by chief executive Troy Setter, CPC sold the 852,300-hectare Nockatunga Station at Thargomindah in Queensland last October to the Harris family’s Cleveland Agriculture. The 10 remaining CPC properties, plus the 476,000-hectare Carlton Hill Station in Western Australia that CPC sold in 2016 but leased back, have a carrying capacity of almost 300,000 cattle.

10. MCDONALD HOLDINGS

3.36 million hectares

FAMILY owned and operated, McDonald Holdings runs about 175,000 cattle on 3.36 million hectares across 14 properties in Queensland, from the Cape Yorke Peninsula to the Darling Downs.

These holdings have been acquired over the past 73 years, since Jim McDonald purchased Brightlands Station in Cloncurry in 1946. That property remains in the family company.

One of the family’s main holdings is Devoncourt Station, at Cloncurry, where the business’s head office is located and home to family members Don, Christine, Julie and her four daughters.

A recent addition to the MDH aggregation is 12,140-hectare property Clearwater on the banks of the Maranoa River, in southwest Queensland, which is used as a depot to supply the Wallumba Feedlot.

11. HUGHES PASTORAL GROUP-GEORGINA PASTORAL COMPANY

2.8 million hectares-plus

WITH more than 2.8 million hectares across nine stations in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory, Hughes Pastoral Group and its sister Georgina Pastoral Company have become a beef powerhouse.

Run by Peter and Jane Hughes and their sons Sam and Fred and based at the family’s 140,000-hectare Tierwoomba Station at Nebo in Queensland, the businesses aim to deliver premium beef to Australian and international markets. In more recent years they have shifted focus to breeding purebred Wagyu cows and pedigree bulls.

As well as Tierwoomba, the Hughes properties comprise Waitara at Nebo, Sirram at Lotus Creek, the 133,000-hectare Cardowan at Sarina, the 69,000-hectare Tumbar Station at Jericho, all in Queensland, and the 2500-hectare Colomendy at Bundara in NSW.

The Georgina Pastoral portfolio includes the 1.7 million-hectare Lake Nash Station in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tablelands, the 160,000-hectare Caldervale at Tambo in Queensland and Keeroongooloo, covering 700,000 hectares of the Queensland Channel Country. Tumbar Station was purchased in 2016 for $67.5 million.

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12. HEYTESBURY CATTLE COMPANY

2.45 million hectares

OWNED by the Holmes a Court family, the Heytesbury Cattle Company holds 2.45 million hectares across the Northern Territory and the eastern Kimberley in Western Australia.

It owns six cattle stations, including the iconic Victoria River Downs, and runs about 160,000 Brahman cattle.

Victoria River Downs was established in 1883 and was once the largest cattle station in the world at 4.1 million hectares. It is now run as four standalone stations that total 890,000 hectares. In 2016 Heytesbury bought Humbert River Station from Consolidated Pastoral Company, adding it as an outstation to Victoria River Downs.

The company is based in Perth and is part of the Heytesbury Group of Companies. It was established by late billionaire Robert Holmes a Court and is now run by his son, Paul Holmes a Court, who was this year named in The Australian’s list of 250 richest people in Australia with a wealth of $363 million.

The company’s property assets are reportedly worth more than $200 million.

13. BRETT BLUNDY RETAIL CAPITAL

2.37 million hectares

THE beef division of retail king Brett Blundy’s private investment company owns 2.37 million hectares across four cattle stations in the Northern Territory.

BBRC Beef is a relatively new player in agriculture, with its first investment in beef in 2010. The company has since continued to expand its holdings.

In 2015 it purchased the 999,700-hectare cattle stations Walhallow and Cresswell Downs at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory from Macquarie-backed Paraway Pastoral for a reported $100 million.

With a focus on growing beef exports into Asia, the company runs more than 175,000 cattle.

Brett Blundy Retail Company was founded in 1980 by Brett Blundy, who is based in Singapore, and also has interests in retail properties and major global retail brands including Bras N Things.

14. HANCOCK PROSPECTING

2.22 million hectares

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart continues to expand Hancock Prospecting’s stake in Australian agriculture, last year adding new holdings to her cattle empire which spans about 2.22 million hectares.

One of Australia’s richest people, with an estimated worth of $13.12 billion, Rinehart also owns a 66 per cent stake in Outback Beef, which bought the majority of S Kidman & Co in 2016.

Hancock owns more than 14 properties across Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and NSW, and is the nation’s second-largest producer of beef with a total herd capacity of more than 320,000 head.

Last year it bought the 3234-hectare grazing property Glendon Park in New England, NSW, for $14 million with a view to expand its Wagyu beef supply chain.

Hancock Prospecting also last year purchased the 17,800-hectare backgrounding and finishing operation Sundown Valley near Armidale in NSW, and the Gunnee feedlot near Inverell, from Sundown Pastoral Co.

15. ACTON LAND AND CATTLE-AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY CHOICE

2.01 million hectares

THE joining of Acton Land and Cattle and Australian Country Choice in 2015 was likened to a marriage of two of the nation’s leading beef families.

ACC, a third-generation vertically integrated beef company owned by rich-lister Trevor Lee and his family, purchased a 51 per cent stake in Acton Land and Cattle, which controlled extensive landholdings in central and northwest Queensland.

As part of the deal, which effectively doubled ACC’s kill capacity, the Lees purchased the Acton’s 942,499-hectare Barkly Downs Station, west of Mt Isa, outright and leased the Millungera (342,000 hectares), Croydon (58,419 hectares), Rugby Run (11,776 hectares), Moray Downs (117,000 hectares) and Iffley (41,529 hectares) cattle properties.

In addition, ACC owns and leases a further 535,700 hectares in its own right, with properties Babbiloora, Dooloogarah, Redford, Wellclose, Brindley Park, Dungowan and Toarki and Rosewood.

16. WESTERN GRAZING COMPANY

1.97 million hectares

OWNED by the Oxenford family, Western Grazing started as a family-run dairy business before turning to large-scale beef production in the 1990s.

Today, it operates across almost two million hectares in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The Oxenfords in 1992 purchased a large portfolio of properties owned by UK’s Vestey family, including the Western Grazing trading name.

The deal included Wave Hill and neighbouring Cattle Creek in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory covering 1.2 million hectares, Camooweal breeding block, Morstone, and Mt Isa finishing property Oban.

It added breeding property Magowra in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1999, and in 2008 purchased backgrounding property Allendale Station in the Augathella region.

In 2016 it offloaded two properties, Rocklands on the Barkly Tablelands and Tanbar in southwest Queensland, comprising 1.7 million hectares, to Macquarie-backed Paraway Pastoral.

The deal was reportedly worth $130-$140 million.

17. MUTOOROO PASTORAL COMPANY

1.95 million hectares

ESTABLISHED in 1968, Mutooroo Pastoral Company covers about 1.95 million hectares in South Australia’s northeast.

It consists of five main stations — Mutooroo, Mulyungarie, Quinyambie, Lilydale and Manunda — and is owned and operated by the Morgan and Wells families. Both are direct descendants of Peter Waite, a significant figure in opening up South Australia’s northeast pastoral areas during the 1880s.

The largest property in the Mutooroo portfolio is the 1.2 million-hectare Quinyambie Station, northwest of Broken Hill, which was purchased from S Kidman & Co in 2010. About 125km northwest of Broken Hill, the property can run up to 9000 cattle.

Mulyungarie at Cockburn in South Australia stocks about 14,500 sheep and 2800 cattle with Mutooroo itself 250,300 hectares in size and home to about 35,000 sheep.

The current managing director of Mutooroo Pastoral Company is Australian Wool Innovation board member James Morgan.

18. STANBROKE

1.6 million hectares-plus

ESTABLISHED in the 1960s, Stanbroke Pastoral Company is a fully integrated beef business operating eight cattle stations covering 1.6 million hectares in Queensland’s Gulf region.

The company was once one of Australia’s biggest landholders with 11.6 million hectares. Stanbroke was purchased from AMP by the Nebo Group — comprising Hungry Jack’s founder Jack Cowin, the Menegazzo potato-growing family and other pastoralists — for $417.5 million in 2004. The syndicate was soon dissolved and the Menegazzo family bought out the other partners for a reported $340 million.

Still owned by the Menegazzos, Stanbroke currently covers 1.6 million hectares and runs about 200,000 cattle. As well as its interests in the Gulf, the business manages 46 properties in Queensland’s Darling Downs region to background cattle for its grain-fed program. It also operates a 30,000-head feedlot and grows crops for livestock feed.

Stanbroke has an abattoir, Establishment 203, in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley, from which its beef is exported to more than 35 countries.

19. TBG AGRI HOLDINGS

1.35 million hectares-plus

TBG Agri Holdings is the Australian arm of Tianma Bearings Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Xingfa Ma.

It arrived dramatically on the Australian rural property scene in 2014 when it paid $18 million for the 639,000-hectare Balfour Downs at Roy Hill in Western Australia.

A year later it bought the 705,700-hectare Wollogorang and Wentworth stations on the Queensland-Northern Territory border for $47 million. Its West Australian portfolio also includes Wandanya Station at Roy Hill, the 8000-hectare Emu Downs Station at Cervantes and the Ferngrove Wine Group in the state’s Great Southern region.

The son of rice farmers, Ma established his first ball bearing factory in 1986 and was once China’s 123rd richest man.

20. ARRABURY PASTORAL COMPANY

1.32 million hectares-plus

THE Daley family run Arrabury Pastoral Company across six properties and 1.32 million hectares of Queensland.

The properties are strategically located in the Channel Country, as well as around Blackall, Meandarra and Condamine and used for beef production.

The Channel Country stations themselves — Arrabury, Cluny and Mt Leonard — comprise about 1.3 million hectares and are used to breed and fatten cattle for high quality domestic and export markets.

Arrabury Station itself was established in the 1880s with the pastoral company formed in 1917.