Jumbuck Pastoral to sell Rawlinna Station to Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries

Aussie billionaire ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s ASX-listed Fortescue Metals Group is poised to purchase the whopping Rawlinna Station.

Australian billionaire and entrepreneur Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest is in the process of purchasing the nation’s largest sheep station, which spans more than a million hectares in WA.

Dr Forrest and Fortescue Metals Group via Fortescue Future Industries have entered into a conditional contract to purchase Rawlinna Station from the MacLachlan family’s Jumbuck Pastoral, who have owned the property since the 1960s.

It is understood Fortescue Future Industries are engaging with stakeholders about the pending transaction with the deal subject to WA government approval. Terms of the deal are undisclosed.

Dr Forrest via FFI are reportedly wanting to develop potential renewable energy generation projects on the property as well as continuing the pastoral lease.

Fortescue Metals Group executive chairman Dr Andrew Forrest. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

FFI declined to comment on the pending transaction.

Rawlinna, located 400km east of Kalgoorlie in WA, is regarded as Australia’s largest operating sheep station, covering an area about the size of Sydney, according to Jumbuck’s website.

Spanning 1.011 million hectares, Rawlinna Station runs about 60,000 Merino sheep and is one of Jumbuck’s premier properties.

Each year there is a 10-week shearing program that begins in February, with up to 65,000 head of Merino pushed through in a good season under the management of Jimmy Woods.

Jumbuck Pastoral is also one of the nation’s largest wool growers running about 234,000 Merinos across their 12-station portfolio.

The MacLachlan family has owned Rawlinna Station since the 1960s.

In 2021 Jumbuck Pastoral was also part of a syndicate which paid $104 million to acquire Wave Hill and Cattle Creek Stations in the NT from Western Grazing.

Meanwhile, Dr Forrest has made a series of significant WA rural property acquisitions in recent years via his companies Tattarang and Harvest Road, taking his personal rural property portfolio to greater than two million hectares.

He paid about $35 million for the 7975ha New Norcia farmland and then purchased the 604,000ha Springvale Aggregation from Hong Kong-based investment capital company ADM Capital last year.

He also acquired the 634,000ha Balfour Downs station from Chinese businessman Xingfa Ma for about $32 million last year.