Ken Cowley-owned R.M. Williams has formed a partnership with Primary Holdings International, called RM Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH). The start-up stations for RMWAH are 3 that were owned by Primary Holdings International, La Belle and adjoining Welltree, south of Darwin; plus Mirage Plains between the Warrego River and Cuttaburra Creek (halfway between Cunnamulla and the NSW border).
La Belle Downs and Welltree, near the NT’s Litchfield National Park, were formerly owned by different members of the Townshend family (originally from Florida, U.S.A – they arrived in Australian in the 1960s). Henry and Maria Townshend sold La Belle to Peter Camm in 2000 for approx $11 million, and Peter also purchased Welltree from Bob Townshend for around $13.5 million in 2005. Peter Camm sold La Belle and Welltree to Primary Holdings International around October 2008, reportedly for around $72.5 million.
Mirage Plains is apparently an amalgamation of six properties, totalling 500,000 hectares. Bill and Glenda Fanning sold Mirage Plains to Primary Holdings International for around $20 million in September 2008. With an irrigation licence for 23,000ML, a massive amount of water in an area of very unreliable rainfall, the potential broadacre irrigated crop development on Mirage Plains has been brought to the attention of Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, who last year was busy waxing lyrical about how much good the Federal Government’s 2008 purchase of downstream Toorale Station (over the border in NSW), would do the Murray/Darling river system. The Darling River Action Group produced an excellent fact sheet in Feb 2009, with ground and aerial images of the state of inland rivers, irrigation water storages and large-scale irrigated crop growing.
Clive Wylie, owner of Inglewood Farms, was a partner in the PHI purchase of Mirage Plains. Clive also bought Hortonvale, a property on the Warrego River just north of Cunnamulla, to grow irrigated organic grain crops.
RMWAH recently finalised the purchase of Inglewood Farms; which is a massive free range, organic poultry business located between Goondiwindi and Warwick in SE Queensland. Inglewood Farms was started by Clive Wylie and his brother John in 1993. They grew up on a family farm and obtained impressive agricultural business experience separately, within Australia and overseas, before coming together in an agribusiness venture. Information on the Inglewood Farms website suggests a genuine interest in organic farming. It is great to see free-range poultry raising flourishing. If only there was more of it, plus free-range organic pig farms. The Wylie brothers Inglewood farm is discussed in an article on the Biological Farmers of Australia website, also.
RM Williams Agricultural Holdings will have the Primary Holdings International founding directors on board – brothers Bob and James Tucker and Angus and Bryce Graham, plus Garry Hill. The Executive Chairman is David Pearse, former Chairman of Primary Holdings International. Ken Cowley is Chairman of RMWAH, and the Executive Director is Hamish Turner, who is also Chief Executive of RM Williams. Chris Memmett is a non-executive director of RMWAH.
The stated aim of RMWAH is to ‘produce premium branded beef, lamb, chicken and grain’, plus carbon positive ventures, to produce tradeable carbon offsets. Carbon-trading company C-Quest Capital LLC (CQC) has invested in RMWAH. CQC was formed in October 2008 and is based in Washington. The C Quest Capital media releasehas a little bit of information re. the joint venture, with a standard type of quote from CQC Chairman Ken Newcombe.
The Australian Agricultural Company had announced in December 2008 that they were talks with Primary Holdings International regarding the sale of five AACo stations to PHI, but in May 2009 the AACo board announced that these talks had ceased as the stations no longer needed to be sold.
All-in-all; a tale of property sales involving massive capital profits that would have far outstripped trading profits; properties bought and sold by those taking risks by investing money in predicting future trends. Only time will tell if the predictions are correct, regarding the expected worldwide rise in food prices due to shortages, increasing popularity of organic grains and meat, and profitability of carbon trading schemes. As the old adages say – land is the one thing you can’t make more of, and money makes money.
Tags: Rural properties for sale and ownership, La Belle Station, Welltree Station, Mirage Plains Station