Australian territory bigger than Scotland on sale for £175m

The family-owned estate – bigger than Scotland and three-quarters of the size of England – was founded in 1899 by Sir Sidney Kidman, Australia’s so-called "cattle king”.

A distant relative of actress Nicole Kidman, Sir Sidney set out penniless from his home in South Australia with a one-eyed horse and proceeded to build up a pastoral empire.

The remote estate, now owned by the beef baron’s descendants, covers eleven cattle stations across the country and includes about 186,000 cattle as well as the 8,900 square-mile Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest standalone cattle property. But only about 150 people are said to live in the vast territory.

The sale has attracted interest from more than 30 bidders across the world, including farming families, investment syndicates, meat companies, foreign investors and global pension funds from China, the United States, Britain, Switzerland and Canada. But it would take interested buyers numerous flights to criss-cross the country to inspect the entire estate.

Workers from the Anna Creek cattle station take a break on the Oodnadatta Track in outback South Australia as they start the mustering of cattle by motorbike and plane (AFP/Getty)

The property is the nation’s largest private landholding and is owned by S Kidman and Co, an unlisted company which is 98 per cent family-owned.

But the sale has proven controversial in Australia and led to calls by some MPs to ensure the property is not sold to a foreign state-owned investor.

Barnaby Joyce, a federal minister and member of the rural-based National party, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, said he would oppose a move to sell the Kidman empire to a foreign-government company.

"This isn’t xenophobia, this is exactly what other countries do — no other government can buy land in China or Indonesia, for example, ” Mr Joyce told The Australian.

"It’s different when it is a genuine foreign company or individual investing… but a foreign government has a more long-term purpose, which could over the long run undermine our nation’s interests.”

Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, sought to play down the comments, saying the government had always closely monitored investment by foreign state-owned entities.

(telegraph.co.uk)