Who Owns Australia’s Farms 2022: NT graziers claim title of nation’s biggest landholder

The past year has been an unprecedented period for Australia’s rural property market. Discover which major farms have changed hands and meet the biggest players.

Two mates from outback Northern Territory have displaced one of the richest women in the world as Australia’s biggest landholder, amid a record flurry of investment in the agriculture sector over the past 12 months.

Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello, from Crown Point Pastoral Company, snatched the coveted No. 1 position from billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart earlier this year after purchasing 3.2 million hectares from her Hancock Agriculture and S Kidman and Co businesses in a landmark four-station, multimillion-dollar deal.

Viv Oldfield (pictured) and Donny Costello have claimed the title of Australia’s biggest landholder with their Crown Point Pastoral Company purchasing 3.2 million hectares from Hancock Agriculture and S Kidman and Co. Picture: Chloe Erlich

AgJournal’s annual investigation into who owns Australia’s farms shows considerable activity by major investors over the past 12 months as the entrance of new global players and renewed demand from domestic family farming businesses force rural land prices into record territory.

According to industry experts, property values in some regions of Australia have more than doubled in the past three years, thanks to a perfect storm of improved seasonal conditions, record commodity prices and low interest rates.

From a land size point of view, Crown Point’s purchase of Rinehart’s Ruby Downs and Sturt Creek stations (796,000 hectares) in the Northern Territory and the Innamincka (1.36 million hectares) and Macumba stations (1.1 million hectares) in South Australia takes its farmland investments to more than 7.2 million hectares – greater than the size of Ireland.

After several years firmly fixed at the top of the biggest landholder charts, Rinehart’s well-publicised divestment of more than four million hectares from her portfolios during the past 12 months has seen her slip three places to No. 4 with 5.9 million hectares.

That has her sitting behind the ASX-listed Australian Agricultural Company (6.6 million hectares) and the North Australian Pastoral Company (6.1 million hectares).

Gina Rinehart has divested more than four million hectares from her rural property portfolios in the past year.

Ruby Plains and Sturt Creek Station in the Kimberley, South of Halls Creek, sold to Crown Point Pastoral Company.

In terms of value, Canada’s PSP Investments has cemented its No. 1 standing in the Australian agriculture space with its portfolio of land and water assets estimated at about $5 billion, up more than a billion dollars in the past year, followed by Macquarie Agriculture ($2.6 billion in assets) and the New York-based TIAA-CREF with 69 properties valued at about $2 billion.

LAWD senior director Danny Thomas describes the current demand for Australian farmland as “extraordinary” with record prices being set across the nation, regardless of region or type.

“The momentum in the market has continued to build and accelerate,” Thomas says.

“There has been a record level of value this year and that stretches across geography and across commodities. There is such strong confidence in the market.”

And he doesn’t expect it to run out of puff anytime soon.

“The market is really extraordinary,” he says. “It would take a Black Swan event or a global economic catastrophe to slow this momentum.”

PSP – the pension fund for the Canadian public service including its world-famous royal mounted police force – continues to have the biggest influence at the top end of the Australian rural property market. In the past year it paid $600 million for the 22,000-hectare Auscott Limited cotton farming, ginning and marketing business in NSW, $100 million-plus for the 1.1 million-hectare Narwietooma, Glen Helen and Napperby cattle stations in the Northern Territory and more than $60 million for goFARM’s Yarrabee Park property of 11,260 hectares at Morundah in southern NSW.

Riverina grain property Yarrabee Park.

It was also a big year for Macquarie who held on to its No. 2 ranking, despite selling off its 103,000-hectare Lawson Grains business in NSW and Western Australia to Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation for almost $600 million last September.

Last June it finalised a $357.53 million takeover of major citrus and berry grower Vitalharvest and, in recent months, secured full ownership of cotton powerhouse Cubbie Station at Dirranbandi in southern Queensland by purchasing Chinese Shandong Ruyi’s 51 per cent share. According to experts, the Cubbie Station business is valued at north of $500 million.

While TIAA-CREF has been fairly quiet on the buying front in recent years – its website lists its most recent purchases in 2020 – its land and water assets have grown to worth about $2 billion. According to its farmland report issued last July, TIAA-CREF’s Australian assets were valued at $US1.4 billion ($A1.88 billion) in December 2020.

Other major players involved in transactions in the past 12 months have included Acton Land and Cattle, which sold its Croydon Station at Maryborough in Queensland for $80 million last July, and Hughes Pastoral Company, which paid $215 million for the 438,000-hectare Miranda Downs Station in Queensland’s Gulf region last June and last month outlaid $100 million for Gina Rinehart’s 550,000-hectare Riveren and Inverway stations in the Northern Territory’s Victoria River District.

TRT Pastoral’s Tim Roberts-Thomson with his children Madeleine and James. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Family farming ventures making significant investments in the past 12 months have included the Melbourne-based Roberts-Thomson family, whose TRT Pastoral paid $120 million for a 6000-hectare slice of the historic Woolnorth property in northwest Tasmania last November, and the Coulton family from Morella Agriculture in northern NSW who bought Hancock Agricultural Investment Group’s 12,840-hectare Kalanga Aggregation near Goondiwindi in Queensland in February for about $80 million.

CBRE Agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow says the number of large-scale family farming operations in the buyer mix at the current level of record prices is significant.

“Up until a couple of years ago … family farmers didn’t have really have the capital like what they do now having had two years of great seasons and brilliant commodity prices,” Goodfellow says.

MOVEMENT AT THE STATIONS

Completed or pending Australian rural property deals of the past 12 months involving major landholders

AAM

PURCHASED: Mt Harden Aggregation, Blackall QLD, 34,000 hectares, $24.8 MILLION

ACTON LAND AND CATTLE

SOLD: Croydon Station, Marlborough QLD, 59,669 hectares

$80 MILLION

ALBERTA MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT CORPORATION (CANADA)

PURCHASED: Lawson Grains portfolio, NSW and WA, 103,000 hectares, $600 MILLION

BRETT BLUNDY RETAIL CAPITAL (BAHAMAS)

FOR SALE: Walhallow Station, Daly Waters NT, 1.03 million hectares

COWAL AGRICULTURE

FOR SALE: Cowal Agriculture Aggregation, Emerald QLD, 5976 hectares, ASKING PRICE $120 MILLION

CROWN POINT PASTORAL COMPANY

PURCHASED: Ruby Downs and Sturt Creek stations, Kimberley WA 796,000 hectares, $70 MILLION

PURCHASED: Innamincka Station, SA, 1.36 million hectares

PURCHASED: Macumba Station, SA, 1.1 million hectares

PURCHASED: Phoenix Park feedlot, SA, 3443 hectares

DUXTON BROADACRE FARMS

SOLD: Boorala, Frances SA, 1980 hectares, $22 MILLION

PURCHASED: West Plains and Lenborough, Forbes NSW, $13.9 MILLION

TWIGGY FORREST-HARVEST ROAD

PURCHASED: New Norcia Aggregation, New Norcia WA, 8000 hectares, $40 MILLION

PURCHASED: Balfour Downs Station, WA, 634,000 hectares, $32 MILLION-PLUS

PURCHASED: Springvale Aggregation, Kimberley WA, 604,000 hectares

GoFARM AUSTRALIA

SOLD: Yarrabee Park, Morundah NSW, 11,260 hectares, $60 MILLION-PLUS

FOR SALE: Sandmount Farms Aggregation, Cobram VIC, ASKING PRICE $250 MILLION

GUNN AGRI

PURCHASED: Mountain Top Avocado Farm, Nimbin NSW, 117 hectares, $11 MILLION

HANCOCK AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT GROUP (UNITED STATES)

SOLD: Kalanga Aggregation, Toobeah QLD, 12,840 hectares, $80 MILLION

HANCOCK AGRICULTURE-S KIDMAN AND CO

SOLD: Riveren and Inverway Stations, Victoria River NT, 555,000 hectares, $100 MILLION

SOLD: Ruby Downs and Sturt Creek stations, Kimberley WA, 796,000 hectares, $70 MILLION

SOLD: Willeroo Station, Katherine NT 171,000 hectares, $40 MILLION

SOLD: Nerrima Station, Derby WA 203,142 hectares, $30 MILLION

SOLD: Aroona Station, Katherine NT 147,510 hectares, $22.7 MILLION

SOLD: Innamincka Station, SA, 1.36 million hectares

SOLD: Macumba Station, SA, 1.1 million hectares

SOLD: Phoenix Park feedlot, SA, 3443 hectares

HANWHA GROUP (SOUTH KOREA)

SOLD: Warragundi Aggregation, Mudgee NSW, $25 MILLION

HARVARD UNIVERSITY ENDOWMENT FUND (UNITED STATES)

SOLD: Moora Almond Orchard, Hillston NSW, 524 hectares, $53.9 MILLION

HILLGROVE PASTORAL

SOLD: Bellevue Aggregation, Cairns QLD, $40 MILLION

HUGHES PASTORAL COMPANY

PURCHASED: Miranda Downs Station, QLD, 438,000 hectares, $215 MILLION

PURCHASED: Riveren and Inverway Stations, Victoria River NT, 555,000 hectares, $100 MILLION

JG BOSWELL AND COMPANY (UNITED STATES)

SOLD: Auscott Limited portfolio, NSW, 22,000 hectares plus water and cropping facilities, $600 MILLION

KOOBA PTY LTD

SOLD: South Farm, Hay NSW, 7760 hectares

SOLD: Glenmea, Hay NSW, 6223 hectares

SOLD: Pevensey, Hay NSW, 5896 hectares

SOLD: Yang Yang, Hay NSW, 17 hectares

LAGUNA BAY AGRICULTURAL FUND

SOLD: Woorndoo Aggregation, Lake Bolac VIC, 3353 hectares, $70 MILLION

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE AND REAL ASSETS

SOLD: Lawson Grains portfolio, NSW and WA, 103,000 hectares, $600 MILLION

PURCHASED: Vitalharvest Freehold Trust, $357.35 MILLION

PURCHASED: Cubbie Station majority share, Dirranbandi QLD

MICHAEL HINTZE PREMIUM FARMS (UNITED KINGDOM)

PURCHASED: South Callandoon, Goondiwindi QLD, $100 MILLION

SOLD: Marshmead, Walgett NSW 12,548 hectares, $25 MILLION

SOLD: Sylvania, Boggabri NSW 3444 hectares, $13 MILLION

MRA MERROWIE PTY LTD

PURCHASED: Sunland Agriculture Aggregation, Hillston NSW, 1747 hectares, $45 MILLION-PLUS

JOHN NICOLETTI

FOR SALE: Apache Agriculture portfolio, Newdegate WA, 45,057 hectares, UNDISCLOSED PRICE

SOLD: Murray River Land-Ulupna Pastoral Co majority stake, VIC, $120 MILLION-PLUS

PRIME VALUE ASSET MANAGEMENT

PURCHASED: Dairy farm aggregation, Circular Head TAS, $62.5 MILLION

PRIMEWEST

PURCHASED: Moora Almond Orchard, Hillston NSW, 524 hectares, $53.9 MILLION

PROTERRA INVESTMENT PARTNERS (UNITED STATES)

SOLD: Corinella Group portfolio, VIC and WA, 22,500 hectares, $370 MILLION

FOR SALE: Vaucluse, Conara TAS, 4448 hectares, FOR SALE AS PART OF $400 MILLION-PLUS OFFERING

FOR SALE: One Tree Aggregation, QLD, 23,594 hectares, FOR SALE AS PART OF $400 MILLION-PLUS OFFERING

FOR SALE: Racecourse, Mackay QLD, 14,425 hectares, FOR SALE AS PART OF $400 MILLION-PLUS OFFERING

PSP INVESTMENTS (CANADA)

PURCHASED: Auscott Limited portfolio, NSW, 22,000 hectares plus water and cropping facilities, $600 MILLION (Australian Food and Fibre)

PURCHASED: Narwietooma, Glen Helen, Derwent and Napperby Stations, 1.1 million hectares, $100 MILLION (Hewitt Cattle Australia)

PURCHASED: Yarrabee Park, Morundah NSW, 11,260 hectares, $60 MILLION-PLUS (Daybreak Cropping)

PURCHASED: Tubbo Station, Darlington Point NSW, 14,876 hectares, $40 MILLION-PLUS (Hewitt Cattle Australia)

PURCHASED: Brewarrana, Narrandera NSW, 3236 hectares, $22 MILLION (Hewitt Cattle Australia)

PURCHASED: Clydebank Aggregation, Gippsland VIC, 1273 hectares, $20 MILLION (Aurora Dairies)

REARDON FAMILY

FOR SALE: Worral Creek Aggregation, Mungindi NSW, 26,855 hectares, $400 MILLION ASKING PRICE

RIFA SALUTARY (CHINA)

SOLD: Cooplacurripa Station, Gloucester NSW, $35 MILLION

ROC PARTNERS

PURCHASED: Murray River Land-Ulupna Pastoral Co majority stake, VIC, $120 MILLION-PLUS

RURAL FUNDS GROUP

PURCHASED: Kaiuroo Aggregation, Mackenzie River QLD, $68.8 MILLION

PURCHASED: The Pocket, Goango QLD, 1917 hectares, $13.8 MILLION

SHANDONG RUYI (CHINA)

SOLD: Cubbie Station majority share, Dirranbandi QLD

SHENHUA GROUP (CHINA)

SOLD: Shenhua Aggregation, Liverpool Plains NSW, 16,500 hectares, $120 MILLION

STANBROKE PASTORAL COMPANY

SOLD: Miranda Downs Station, QLD 438,000 hectares, $215 MILLION

THF FINANCE (GERMANY)

SOLD: Central Queensland aggregation, QLD, 21,900 hectares, $100 MILLION

TRT PASTORAL

PURCHASED: Woolnorth Aggregation, TAS, 6000 hectares, $120 MILLION

UPTON FARMS

SOLD: Upton Farms Aggregation, Nowendoc NSW, 2668 hectares, $80 MILLION-PLUS

VAN DAIRY LIMITED (CHINA)

SOLD: Woolnorth Aggregation, Smithton TAS, 6000 hectares, $120 MILLION

SOLD: Dairy farm aggregation, Circular Head TAS, $62.5 MILLION

WILMOT CATTLE COMPANY

PURCHASED: Paradise Creek Station, Inverell NSW, 2575 hectares, $22 MILLION-PLUS