Foreign investment in Australian agricultural land & food production companies

August 6th, 2012

Trade Minister Craig Emerson says the increase in foreign ownership of Australian farm land has been negligible. ‘Barely 6%’ is foreign owned and there has been ‘little change in 25 years’. How about Craig trots out the precise figures, so we can draw our own conclusions? Or do his figures only include land sales that […]

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Ken & Geoff Warriner leaving Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC)

July 4th, 2012

It’s not really a surprise that Ken Warriner is set to leave Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) because it was likely sooner or later.  However it is a big surprise to hear today that Ken’s son Geoff, CPC Chief Operating Officer,  is also set to leave the company – and in less than 4 week’s time. […]

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Tanumbirini Station sold to Thames Pastoral Company

February 23rd, 2012

Baldy Bay Pty Ltd  has sold the NT’s Tanumbirini Station to a business apparently new to rural Australia, and about which very little is publicly known – Thames Pastoral Company.  Tanumbirini Station was previously owned by Henry & Maria Townshend, who sold it in 2006. According to Beef Central, David Connolly is the manager of Thames […]

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Australia’s pastoral companies – land ownership & changes; corporate & family

December 20th, 2011

Most of Australia’s largest pastoral companies, whether publicly or privately owned, list the cattle stations, sheep properties, farms and feedlots owned, on their websites. This was not always the case and it is probably only done these days to help secure the attention of prospective employees. The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) is publicly owned and […]

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Peter Sherwin – Sherwin Pastoral Company

December 14th, 2011

Discovered a very interesting newspaper article on Peter Sherwin, titled ‘Peter Sherwin:  the battles of a real strange critter’.  Written by Colleen Ryan and Sue Lecky, this lengthy article on Peter Sherwin was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 7th 1989.  It can be read now on the Toowoomba Hotel website.  As they say, […]

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Foreign ownership of rural land is restricted or even prohibited, in many other countries

November 9th, 2011

Xavier Duff has included some interesting facts in a  Weekly Times article on foreign investment.  He mentions that foreign ownership of rural land is regulated in many other countries.  Other countries, presumably most of them, require that all rural land owned by foreigners is registered with the federal government (eg USA).  Some countries restrict the amount of land that can […]

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Vestey cattle properties resumed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez

November 3rd, 2011

The British company ‘Vestey Group’  was founded in 1897 by brothers William and Edmund Vestey.  Around the early 1900’s the Vestey family company had begun purchasing agricultural land in South American countries and Australia, and over the decades the company developed vertical integration – cattle stations, meatworks (eg at Wyndham [WA], Bullocky Point in Darwin [NT] and Lakes Creek […]

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Foreign ownership of Australian land and water

October 4th, 2011

There has been quite a bit written about recently published figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showing the percentage of overseas ownership of Australian land.  Many writers have conveniently interpreted the figures to mean Australians are a paranoid, parochial lot – unreasonably concerned with mythically increasing overseas ownership. There is virtually no objective analysis and in-depth discussion of […]

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Ken Warriner and Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC)

August 22nd, 2011

Mark Irwin became the new CEO of Consolidated Pastoral Company on 1st August, replacing  long-term CPC CEO Ken Warriner.  However Ken will stay on as CPC Chairman, and still presumably owns a 10% stake in the company. Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) is Australia’s second largest beef producing company, after the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo).  In 1983 Kerry Packer […]

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Henbury Station – R.M. Williams Agriculture – carbon trading scheme

July 27th, 2011

Further to the June 5 post re. Henbury Station’s purchase by RMWAH, here’s quote in The Australian from CSIRO ‘site leader’ Ashley Sparrow, regarding ‘revegetating’ Henbury and turning it into a ‘carbon sink’: “…. the rejuvenation would be “a slow process, since most recovery relies on big rainfall events.  I would expect in a while, and after […]

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