The Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) is a large, privately owned,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n Agrifood business which operates 8

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

s covering over 3.6m hectares, managing more than 300,000 cattle, in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Its direct sales channels primarily involve selling cattle and beef to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n consumer markets, domestic

feedlot A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called conc ...

s or processors, and exporting live cattle.

History

CPC was formed in 1983 with the purchase of various holdings in the Northern Territory, including

Newcastle Waters Station Newcastle Waters Station is a pastoral lease between Alice Springs and Darwin, supporting about 45,000 cattle in a notably well-watered area of 10,353 square kilometres. Kerry Packer was once a partner in the station, and sent his son James ...

, from Ashburton Pastoral Company. The Company acquired

Isis Downs Station Isis Downs Station is a pastoral lease that currently operates as a cattle station but has previously operated as a sheep station in Queensland. The property is situated approximately south of Ilfracombe and west of Blackall. The property ...

in 1987 at which time the property occupied an area of for an estimated 10 million. The Company acquired Nockatunga Station in 1990. Consolidated placed Isis Downs on the market in 2003 following a decision by

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

to focus on beef cattle and meat processing operations. At the time the was stocked with 80,000

merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

sheep and 10,000 mixed cattle and was offered for an estimated 20 million. The sale was not successful and in 2004 the company decided to remove all sheep from the property and introduced cattle instead. In April 2009 a majority share in CPC was acquired by private equity firm Terra Firma. Keith Warren resigned as Chief Executive Officer of the company in 2014 citing family reasons after less than one year in the position. Troy Setter took over after joining the company only four months earlier from

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

. The company acquired

Bunda Station Bunda Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Situated approximately west of Lajamanu and south west of Daguragu in the Victoria River district. The property was originally par ...

, adjacent to

Kirkimbie Kirkimbie Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Situated approximately west of Lajamanu and north east of Halls Creek near the border with Western Australia. The property occ ...

, in the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory for approximately 15 million in 2014. The property had been passed in at auction two years earlier for 10 million. CPC is owned by Guy and Julia Hands through the Hands Family Office. Terra Firma (UK) (owned by Guy Hands) is the investment manager of CPC for the Hands Family Office. The Hands Family Office invests on behalf of the Hands family and has a long and successful track record of diverse investments, including forestry, renewables, real estate and hospitality. The strategic rationale underlying the acquisition of CPC was driven by a number of global macroeconomic themes, in particular: global population growth; a shift in Asian diet towards higher protein consumption; and limited supply of productive land. CPC has significant land and water development opportunities.

Cattle stations

Allawah Allawah is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Allawah is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Allawah lies in the local government area of the Geo ...

, Queensland * Bunda, Northern Territory * Carlton Hill, Western Australia * Isis Downs, Queensland *

, Northern Territory *

Newcastle Waters Newcastle Waters is a town and locality off the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. The nearest petrol station and accommodation is found south at Elliott. The Newcastle Waters School draws most of its few students from the Marlinja hom ...

, Northern Territory * Dungowan, Northern Territory *

Wrotham Park Wrotham Park (pronounced , ) is a neo-Palladian English country house in the parish of South Mimms, Hertfordshire. It lies south of the town of Potters Bar, from Hyde Park Corner in central London. The house was designed by Isaac Ware in 17 ...

, Queensland

References

Agriculture companies of Australia Food and drink companies established in 1983 Australian companies established in 1983 {{Australia-company-stub