NT cattle station owned by UAE Sheik listed for sale

A sprawling cattle station in Central Australia owned by a member of the United Arab Emirates royal family has been listed for auction.

Idracowra Station will go to auction with a reserve of $7 million.

A BILLIONAIRE Sheik from the United Arab Emirates is selling his Central Australian cattle station, which spans more than 460,000ha.

Known for having one of the largest car collections in the world, Sheik Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan is offloading the 462,800ha Idracowra Station in the Northern Territory.

The property will be auctioned on a walk-in, walk-out basis with a reserve price of $7 million. It will include about 3000 cattle and plant and equipment.

Sheik Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan.

The Sheik, who is a member of one of the six ruling families of the UAE and has a reported worth of about $20 billion, bought the property in 2007 from the Murphy family, who had owned the station since 1952.

Dubbed the Rainbow Sheik for his collection of different coloured Mercedes Benz, Al Nahyan is also known for constructing the world’s largest truck — a replica eight times the size of a classic Dodge Power Wagon.

JLL agribusiness directors Geoff Warriner and Chris Holgar have been appointed to sell the Northern Territory property.

Mr Holgar said it was a “low-cost pastoral enterprise supplying livestock to primarily southern (domestic) markets”.

“Notwithstanding the current level of development, large portions of the landholding towards the southern and eastern boundary remains undeveloped. As such, a tangible opportunity exists for future development resulting in expansion of the current grazing operation,” he said.

Mr Warriner said the Finke River traversed the northern part of the property for 90km and provided semipermanent and permanent waterholes.

“Areas which flank the Finke River are fertile and provide exceptional pasture during favourable seasonal conditions,” Mr Warriner said.

Idracowra will be auctioned at 10am on Friday, September 6.

Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan also built this gigantic Willys replica.