Queensland Investment Corporation purchases Packhorse Pastoral’s Stuart Creek station

The $100bn Queensland Investment Corporation has purchased Packhorse Pastoral’s remaining 8300ha Queensland cattle and carbon station.

The final cattle station of the Packhorse Pastoral portfolio has been sold to the mammoth investment arm of the Queensland government.

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), the majority owner of the North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCo), has purchased the 8300ha Stuart Creek station, located 50km northwest of Roma, in a deal reportedly worth $30 million-plus.

QIC’s acquisition of Stuart Creek is via its newly established natural capital platform. It is the second purchase through the natural capital platform following a deal for a 600ha irrigated sugar cane property south of the Mackay region last year.

Following the tragic death of Packhorse Pastoral co-founder Tom Strachan and his son in a light plane crash last year, the regenerative pastoral company listed its three-station 27,124ha portfolio for sale.

Each of Packhorse’s farms were offered with registered carbon baselines in place and plans to maximise carbon sequestration and natural capital development over the next 25 years.

Stuart Creek station, northwest of Roma, has been sold by Packhorse Pastoral to the $100 billion Queensland Investment Corporation.

Head of QIC natural capital Tom Murphy said the acquisition would offer environmental market options “complementary to the existing traditional cattle grazing operations”.

“Packhorse is a recognised leader in carbon farming and that legacy is not lost on any of us,” Mr Murphy said in a statement.

“This is prime agricultural land that also has significant areas registered for sequestration, offering the best of both worlds in cattle and carbon.

“We welcome the opportunity to continue collaborations with academic, environmental and industry groups to support new and existing biodiversity projects on site.”

Stuart Creek was purchased by Packhorse Pastoral from the Galwey family two years ago as a seed asset in what was a five-year $1.5 billion acquisition plan.

QIC’s purchase of Stuart Creek marks the end of Packhorse Pastoral’s three-farm venture after the enterprise sold its other two stations; the 8731ha Ottley Station west of Inverell in northern NSW and the 10,029ha Moolan Downs Aggregation in the Western Downs region of Queensland to Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture for about $80 million earlier this year.

QIC owns an 80 per cent shareholding of the North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCo) after a $400 million deal in 2016.