June 21, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Miranda Downs hasn’t been on the market long. Stanbroke Pastoral Co. owners, the Menegazzo family, placed the property on the market in April with the window for expressions of interest closing on June 3.

Located in Normanton, Queensland, Miranda Downs is noted as being exceptional.

“Miranda is quality northern country with reliable rainfall,” said marketing agent Bruce Douglas with Ray White Rural in April. “The new owners will have the opportunity to further increase productivity.”

Miranda Downs was originally part of the Queensland Stations pastoral portfolio, which was acquired in 1982 by the Coutts Brothers, who invested $1.6 million in the operation before selling it in 1989 to cattleman Wallace Logan for $6.5 million (including 13,000 head of cattle).

The property was then sold by Logan in 1998 to AMP-owned Stanbroke Pastoral Co. for approximately $9 million. In 2003 AMP sold Stanbroke in a controversial deal to a consortium of beef producers including Peter Menegazzo, who at the time, held a 50 percent stake. It was then in 2004 when the current owners – the Menegazzo family – bought out the remaining Stanbroke shareholders. 

Offered on a walk-in, walk-out basis, Miranda is one of eight gulf-region cattle stations owned by the Menegazzo family, who run about 200,000 head of cattle on 1.6 million hectares; backgrounding and then processing cattle at its export facility in the Lockyer Valley for export to more than 35 markets.

On its own, Miranda Downs is one of the largest grazing properties in Queensland with 438,000 hectares (1,082,321 acres) including extensive double-frontage on the Gilbert and Maxwell Rivers.

The property includes several dams, lagoons, and permanent watering holes with the majority having a 2 kilometer grazing radius. There exist 45 main grazing paddocks, ten steel cattle yards, and two established station complexes, along with a 6,000 megaliter water license from the Gilbert River. Included in the sale of the property which is rated at 66,000 adult equivalents, is a herd of 55,000 head of Brahman and crossbred cattle, of which, 20,000 are breeders. 

Over the past four years 364 kilometers of new fencing has been installed on the property, which has also benefited from significant investment in water development.

Now, Miranda Downs is listed as being “under offer” on the website of Ray White Rural, which could not disclose any further information, but told Beef Central that it experienced “amazing interest” from multiple interested parties. 

Prior to the sale, conservative expectations were that the property would fetch between A$145-A$155 million (US$109-$117 million). But considering that the value of the cattle alone would exceed A$80 million (about $US$60 million) , it is believed that the value of the deal exceeds expectations. 

Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.