The Jumbuck Pastoral Company is an Australian company that operates numerous

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 and

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

s 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 ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

and 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 ...

It is one of the largest landowners in Australia and the biggest

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

grower. Jumbuck controls over of holdings which run approximately 320,000 head of sheep and 80,000 head of cattle. The company is a

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

owned by the MacLachlan family and is based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. It was established in 1888 by H. P. MacLachlan who was known for his ability with stock and being able to ride out a drought. Initially the company was interested in wool growing in the arid at Paratoo Station near

Yunta Yunta is a town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's east about north-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is a service centre supporting both the local area and travellers passing through on the Ba ...

. Eventually it diversified into cattle. By the mid-1920s MacLachlan's son, B. H. MacLachlan, was running the company after his father had loaned him £16,000 to acquire and develop lands in the Tarcoola area. When MacLachlan Senior died in 1939, B. H. continued to expand the development plan with Commonwealth Hill Station and Mulgathing Station shearing over 100,000 sheep in 1945. B.H. MacLachlan handed over to his son, H.G. (Hugh) MacLachlan in 1960. Hugh took up pastoral leases in

Rawlinna Station Rawlinna Station is a pastoral lease and sheep station located about east of Kambalda in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. The locality of Rawlinna and the Trans-Australian Railway are situated along the boundary of th ...

and Madura Plains. The company was fined 100,000 in 2005 following the death of a jackaroo in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 2001. Hugh MacLachlan stepped down as the managing director of the company in 2009 after nearly half a century in the role. Both his sons, Jock and Callum, were appointed as joint managing directors. In 2014 the company acquired

Killarney Station Killarney Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory of Australia. The property is situated approximately south east of Timber Creek and south of Darwin. History ...

in the

for about 35 million. The property occupied an area of and supports a herd of approximately 26,000 cattle.

References

{{reflist Agriculture companies of Australia Australian companies established in 1888 Food and drink companies established in 1888 Companies based in Adelaide