Article courtesy of Australia Property Journal.
MINING billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture has acquired three irrigated cropping farms spanning 6,856 hectares on the NSW northwestern slopes in a deal reportedly worth about $150 million.
Hancock Agriculture bought the aggregation, comprising Cudgewa, Pian Plain and Pindara, from the Findley family, which has lived in the area for three generations. Father-and-son-team Robin and Lucas Findley have been running the properties.
Of the total land, about 4,300 hectares is developed to irrigation, and the properties’ annual production averages between 25,000 and 30,000 cotton bales. A key feature of the aggregation is the sizeable water entitlements, with a combined allocation of 23,000 megalitres and about 7,000 megalitres of groundwater.
Hancock Agriculture plans to use the Wee Waa aggregation to produce cotton, and follows its acquisition of the Warra Warra cropping property on Queensland’s Western Downs early this year.
The company has recently been selling down a huge chunk of its cattle properties. In the process, the Crown Point Pastoral portfolio of Viv Oldfield, together with Don and Colleen Costello, grew to nearly 9.5 million hectares of land, making them the country’s largest private landholders ahead of Rinehart after purchasing her Innamincka, Macumba, Ruby Plains, and Sturt Creek stations.
Rinehart completed the $300 million selldown earlier this year with the divestments of Riveren and Inverway stations for about $100 million to Peter and Jane Hughes of Hughes Pastoral Co and Georgina Pastoral Co.
The Findleys, meanwhile, have been developing the Etta Plains property in Queensland’s Gulf country after acquiring the 28,442 hectare holding three years ago for about $25 million.
