Six months after a deal was struck, Western Australia’s government is yet to approve the transfer of Australia’s largest operating sheep station into foreign ownership.<\/p>\n
In early March, UK-based Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) agreed to purchase Rawlinna Station for an undisclosed sum from long-time owners Jumbuck Pastoral.<\/p>\n
The deal was given the green light by the Foreign Investment Review Board, but the WA government says it is still considering if it will approve the sale.<\/p>\n
Established by the MacLachlan family in the 60s, Rawlinna sprawls across more than 1 million hectares of the Nullarbor Plain, covering an area approximately the size of Sydney.<\/p>\n
CPC director Troy Setter said he was frustrated by the delay, with the company ready to increase the station’s sheep numbers and invest in staff and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rawlinna Station’s shearing record of 78,000 sheep was set in the early 2000s before wild dogs and drought decimated the flock. (Supplied: Rawlinna Station\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
He said the company had no explanation for the six-month delay.<\/p>\n
“We’d love to be on site and investing in the property,” he said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Cook government spokesperson said the matter would be “considered and progressed in due course”.<\/p>\n
“Government due diligence for significant areas of land that will alter the concentration of control of pastoral lease ownership in Western Australia is done to a rigorous standard,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rawlinna Station covers more than 1 million hectares of the WA outback. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n
New markets for embattled sheep industry<\/p>\n
With the sale delayed, Mr Setter said there had been missed opportunities for both the company and other sheep producers.<\/p>\n
“We were in negotiations when people were shooting sheep in WA [last year], we were really trying to get the transaction done quickly because we could see a home for some of them,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We are budgeting on not selling many sheep off the property for the first couple years, and buying sheep in.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully we can be a bigger part of the WA sheep industry going forward.”<\/p>\n
He said CPC would be purchasing between 300 and 600 rams annually, depending on the season.<\/p>\n
It is welcome news for WA’s stud ram breeders, who have struggled with depressed prices and demand in recent years due to the state’s diminishing sheep numbers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thousands of shearers have worked at the station in its decades of operations. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n
Stud Merino Breeders Association of WA president Grantly Mullan it was disappointing Rawlinna would not play a part in upcoming ram sales.<\/p>\n
Beyond the initial sale value, he said station rams would give the stud market confidence to increase their numbers and improve their genetics.<\/p>\n
“A lot of good rams through the downturn in the last few years have gone to abattoirs,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If they are going to stick to a large merino flock, and they just want it signed off for them to start buying rams, it is frustrating, it has been a hard time for all merino producers, and stud breeders are included in that.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The station produced more than 800 bales of wool last season. (Supplied: Rawlinna Station\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
Clock ticking on deal<\/p>\n
The sale could still potentially fall through, with the contract including a time limit for the receival of all approvals.<\/p>\n
By comparison, Mr Setter said the group’s pastoral acquisitions in the Northern Territory and Queensland had been approved in one or two weeks.<\/p>\n
“Then we can get on and close the transaction and invest in the operations and the people,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Troy Setter says Consolidated Pastoral Company is keen to get to work at Rawlinna. (ABC Rural: Max Rowley)<\/p>\n
“You can look at it and say the WA government is very serious about ensuring that properties are sold to people that are going to look after them.<\/p>\n
“Or you could look at it and say it’s a slow process in WA, and you need to put a lot of time into your investment and planning model.”<\/p>\n
While it was potentially interested in future investments, he said CPC would not buy any other stations in WA until Rawlinna settled.<\/p>\n
Last year Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries had planned to turn Rawlinna into a green energy hub, but withdrew its bid to buy the station.<\/p>\n
Jumbuck Pastoral declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six months after a deal was struck, Western Australia’s government is yet to approve the transfer of Australia’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,81261,67870,81257,40213,81255,81263,81256,44,81254,16802,81253,81260,81258,81262,45,81259],"class_list":["post-114129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-consolidated-pastoral-company","tag-cpc","tag-firb","tag-goldfields-news","tag-jumbuck","tag-jumbuck-pastoral","tag-land-management","tag-news","tag-nullabor","tag-pilbara-news","tag-rawlinna","tag-rawlinna-station","tag-rawlinna-station-sale","tag-troy-setter","tag-wa-news","tag-who-owns-rawlinna-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}