Foreign investors snap up Rawlinna sheep station

Sheep on the move at Rawlinna station in Western Australia.

The famedhas bought Australia’s biggest sheep station, Rawlinna, after it was put on the block when tycoon Andrew Forrest last year dumped plans to buy it for a renewable energy project.

The CPC business, once controlled by the late Kerry Packer, is now owned by English financier Guy Hands and his wife Julia through the Hands Family Office.

Rawlinna was developed in the 1960s by grazier Hugh ­MacLachlan after he spotted a West Australian land parcel while on a stop-off on the Indian Pacific train.

Real estate firm Elders said the MacLachlan family’s Jumbuck Pastoral and Consolidated Pastoral had entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the station for an undisclosed sum understood to top $20m.

The deal is conditional on CPC receiving Foreign Investment Review Board approval for the ­acquisition of the station, and WA government approval for the transfer of the pastoral lease. Rawlinna was sold on a going concern “walk in, walk out” basis, including the sheep flock.

CPC is bullish about its latest acquisition, with chief executive Troy Setter saying it would assess buying more stations for cattle, sheep and cropping.

Elders executive general manager Tom Russo said the sale had drawn “significant interest from the market, including large sheep production enterprises from both the east and west coast, new entrants and international investors. It was excellent to see the confidence in the industry.”

Jumbuck Pastoral’s Jock ­MacLachlan said Rawlinna station “occupies an important space in our family’s history”.

“We are delighted that it will be passed to a custodian the calibre of CPC, with a strong record of sustained investment in our industry and whose owner takes a multi-generational view,” he said.

CPC chief executive Troy Setter.

Mr Setter said the purchase of Rawlinna would result in the company returning to large-scale sheep and wool production.

“Our owners, the Hands family, have held significant sheep production properties in the UK and we believe now is a good time to invest in Australia’s sheep and wool industry,” Mr Setter said. “Rawlinna represents an opportunity for us to re-enter the Australian sheep production space at scale and accelerate our ambition of building out a quality diversified portfolio by both geography and production type.

“We have no intention of converting Rawlinna away from sheep production. We will aim to build on the legacy of Jumbuck Pastoral by further developing Rawlinna to increase its sheep and wool production capacity in the years to come.”

Jumbuck Pastoral is one of the largest livestock production enterprises in Australia. Established in 1888, it is a family-owned company with vast landholdings throughout the country.

In the mid-1950s, Hugh ­MacLachlan was travelling from South Australia to Perth on the Indian Pacific when the train stopped at a remote siding called Rawlinna. He saw the siding had good quality underground water and, being a pastoralist, he could see the miles of open saltbush, bluebush and grass plains. He grew Rawlinna into the largest sheep station in Australia, occupying 1,046,323 hectares.

The Indian Pacific passing through Rawlinna today.

Jumbuck Pastoral owns a substantial portfolio of sheep and cattle stations throughout Australia. Jumbuck intends to increase that portfolio and remain one of the largest ­cattle and sheep producers in Australia.

CPC has a history in Australian agriculture dating back to 1879. In late 2020, the British-based Hands Family Office took full control of the business and since then it has grown locally and in Indonesia.

CPC owns and operates nine station aggregations in Australia and two feedlots in Indonesia. It runs 300,000 head of cattle, 45,000 goats and produces crops on more than 3.2 million hectares. It owns Isis Downs, which was one of Australia’s largest sheep stations.