Great news – finally; the threshold for unscrutinised purchases of land from non-Australians has been lowered, and the total is now cumulative. The new limit is $15 million in total; down from a whopping $240 million per purchase (not cumulative!) So from 1st March 2015, anyone who intends purchasing land for $15 million or more, […]
Fiona Lake Blog
Foreign Investment in Australia
February 12th, 2015Terra Firma sale of Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC)
November 20th, 2014It’s two and a half years since I wrote about Ken and Geoff Warriner leaving Consolidated Pastoral Company, saying: “…it will be interesting to see how long Terra Firma retains ownership of CPC. With few exceptions, overseas investment companies seem to retain Australian cattle station investments for less than five years, so it will be […]
Australian National Park Management and Conservation
October 28th, 2013Apparently the Queensland LNP are continuing property purchase talks with the owners of 3 cattle stations in far South-West Queensland, for yet more millions. Several questions are immediately obvious: Where is the money coming from to purchase these cattle stations. Some of it wouldn’t be from taxes paid by remaining cattle station owners, by any […]
RMWAH in receivership – failure of the Henbury Cattle Station project
July 2nd, 2013R.M. Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH) has gone into receivership. No surprise. What is surprising is that blindingly obvious questions, which I posed in blog posts dating back to the company’s formation, remain unanswered. Years later. I hope taxpayers enjoyed kissing their millions goodbye. I’ve written a number of blog posts mentioning RMWAH; here are several of the […]
NAPCo – North Australia Pastoral Co – shares for sale
May 13th, 2013The North Australia Pastoral Co (NAPCo) is one of Australia’s oldest large pastoral companies; having been established in the 1870s. Renowned for conservative, steady management (the most likely style to make a healthy profit, long-term); the ownership of NAPCo has always been kept as secret as possible; with long-term shareholders living unassuming lives out of […]
SLM Australia Livestock Fund
March 12th, 2013SLM Partners Australia Pty Ltd has set up the SLM Australia Livestock Fund, which has apparently been buying property around Cunnamulla (Southern Queensland) and Enngonia (North Western NSW). The plan is to cell graze large numbers of cattle to “improve productivity while enhancing the environment”. SLM stands for “Sustainable Livestock Management”. Presumably SLM Partners will […]
Cattle station work featured on ‘Big Australia’ – 7Mate TV channel
November 26th, 2012The most recent episode of 7Mate’s ‘Big Australia’ TV series featured life on a northern Australian cattle station. Over the one hour programme, 3,000 head were mustered out of Green Holes paddock on the Acton Land & Cattle Company’s ‘Millungera’ Station, in Queensland’s Gulf Country. Brothers Graeme and Evan Acton are well known in the […]
Foreign ownership of Australian rural land
September 10th, 2012Anyone with an interest in the foreign ownership debate may like to visit Monica Attard’s article on The Hoopla called ‘Quick Facts. Selling the farm?’ and put their two bob’s worth in by adding a comment. Unfortunately there seems to be next-to-no discussion on whether foreign land ownership is good for Australian farms in a […]
Foreign investment in Australian agricultural land & food production companies
August 6th, 2012Trade Minister Craig Emerson says the increase in foreign ownership of Australian farm land has been negligible. ‘Barely 6%’ is foreign owned and there has been ‘little change in 25 years’. How about Craig trots out the precise figures, so we can draw our own conclusions? Or do his figures only include land sales that […]
Ken & Geoff Warriner leaving Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC)
July 4th, 2012It’s not really a surprise that Ken Warriner is set to leave Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) because it was likely sooner or later. However it is a big surprise to hear today that Ken’s son Geoff, CPC Chief Operating Officer, is also set to leave the company – and in less than 4 week’s time. […]