January 28, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

An investor consortium consisting of the MacLachlan family trading as Jumbuck Pastoral Co., and three silent partners, has acquired Wave Hill and Cattle Creek Stations located in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory for A$104 million (US$80 million).

The Jumbuck Pastoral consortium is only the fourth owner for Wave Hill in more than 140 years, having bought it from Western Grazing, who acquired it in 1992 from Vestey Group – a British pastoral company owned by Lord Vestey, which owned the property for 70 years, having bought it from the original owner Nat Buchanan, who established Wave Hill in 1883.

Ben Cameron and Brendan Goulding of Brisbane-based Bentleys Transaction Services were tapped to handle the sale of the aggregation after it was owned by Western Grazing for nearly three decades. Western Grazing has stated that it will retain ownership of its remaining five cattle properties in Queensland.

An advertising campaign began on October 10, 2020, and as many as 40 bids from both domestic and foreign investors were sought, Cameron told Farm Weekly.

“There was strong interest from both local and international buyers from the start of the sale process,” Cameron told ABC Rural. “From the expressions of interest received, our client selected 10 ‘shortlisted’ parties to progress with property inspections.”

“The inspections were undertaken over a five-week period following which final bids were submitted last Thursday for consideration by our client. They are now delighted to have successfully negotiated a contract for sale of the properties with Jumbuck Pastoral.”

The deal marks one of the highest prices ever paid for a single Australian cattle property. Both stations are run as a single operation totaling 1.25 million hectares (3 million acres!), on which 57,000 head of Brahman and Brahman cross cattle have been run over the past decade. At the point when the stations were placed on the market in September 2020, however, the deal included 40,000 head of cattle due to drought conditions throughout last year. 

This also marks Jumbuck’s second pastoral deal in the Northern Territory, having bought Killarney Station in 2014 for $35 million. But due to the massive scale of this acquisition, Jumbuck decided to take on three Australian private city-based minority shareholders in order to be able to put forth a suitable bid.

Moving forward, the total aggregation will operate under the business name Wave Hill Holdings Pty Ltd, managed by Callum and Jock MacLachlan, partners in Jumbuck; its parent company, Commonwealth Hill Pty Ltd; and the three unnamed investors. Additionally, Gavin Miller and his wife Narelle, who have been the managers of the property with Western Grazing, have agreed to continue with the business under the new ownership.

“Wave Hill is a fabulous asset running cattle with great economy of scale,” Callum MacLachlan told Beef Central. “It’s only the third time it has come onto the market in more than 100 years, and we saw this as an opportunity which comes along only very, very rarely.”

In good seasons, Wave Hill, which has 76 bores allowing for grazing across the properties, is covered in Mitchell Grass. But due to adverse conditions during 2020, the new owners are planning on running only 35,000 head on the property to allow for the pasture to recover.

Looking ahead, MacLachlan believes that given improvements in water and fencing and significant investment over the next decade, the aggregation can rebound to achieve a long-term capacity of between 55,000-60,000 head.

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.