ITS HISTORY STRETCHES back over a century to a penniless teen on a one-eyed horse – and now Australia’s largest property empire is on the market.
Some 11 cattle stations owned by the country’s biggest landowner, S. Kidman & Co, are being sold in one lot with a going price of over AU$300 million (€206 million).
The total land area, which spans parts of Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, cover more than 100,000 sq kms, or over 24 million acres, nearly 20% larger than the entire island of Ireland. Only 150 people are said to live on the property.
The tranche of outback includes the world’s biggest cattle ranch, Anna Creek, which covers 23,000 sq kms, or about the same amount of territory as Munster.
The sale also includes more than 200,000 head of cattle as part of a business that stretches back over a century to legendary pastoralist, “Cattle King” Sir Sidney Kidman.
In the 1870s he set out from his home in Adelaide as a teenager with only a one-eyed horse but by his death in 1935 he had built up property holdings estimated to cover over 260,000 square kms – larger than the UK.
His descendents in the Kidman family, of which Australian actress Nicole Kidman is a distant relative, still own 98% of the company which carries his name. Their fortune has been put at about AU$364 million (€250 million).
Colliers International rural valuer Alex Thamm told Property Observer the land was “a world-class asset of international significance”, while the Australian Financial Review reported there had already been 200 inquiries earlier this month.
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