British rich lister Guy Hands creates world’s biggest sheep operation in WA outback after big splash purchases

Australia has long ridden on a sheep’s back and now a British investment guru wants a slice of the action too, recently buying up pastoral stations bigger than Perth and Sydney combined. English financier Guy Hands, worth about $750 million, is in the process of buying the 711,638 hectare Madura Plains Station — which is bigger than Perth’s metropolitan area — through his company Consolidated Pastoral Company. Once owned by late mogul Kerry Packer, it is being sold by CC Cooper for about $30 million, subject to WA Government approval. The station, which has about 60,000 sheep, adds to CPC’s other recent and nearby acquisition, Rawlinna Station, which it bought in September last year. The iconic Rawlinna is Australia’s biggest station, at more than 1 million hectares — bigger than Sydney’s metropolitan area — and is capable of accommodating up to 80,000 sheep. The nearby farms, while not physically connected, will be jointly managed to form the biggest integrated sheep operation in the world. Troy Setter, chief executive of CPC, said the company was confident about the future of sheep farming in Australia, which is in recovery after several challenging years. A recent report from Meat and Livestock Australia shows that in 2023-24, WA sheep farms were the most unprofitable in Australia. Mr Setter said there were many disturbing images of local farmers shooting their sheep in recent years because they could not get the prices needed to cover the costs of taking the produce to market. Nor could farmers get access to enough abattoirs, while drought-stricken lands limited the amount of feed needed to keep the sheep alive. But he said good rainfall, extra “kill space” and growing demand was helping to turn the sector around. “I think it is fair to say that sheep production in WA in 2023-24 was terrible due to market challenges and confidence challenges and drought challenges,” he said. “We see an opportunity . . . for sheep-meat and wool amid a tightening of supply in Australia and globally.” Mr Setter said as long-term buyers, CPC was not concerned with picking short-term cycles on the next few years, but was more concerned with broader trends and Australia’s geographical location next to Asia. He said the farms are set to continue a broad focus on Asia, where Australia has a strong reputation for its clean, green produce. But he said they could not rely on reputation alone, with growing cohorts of buyers also concerned about costs. To that end, he said Australian farms needed to innovate technologically, boost productivity faster than the inflation rate and draw on its long-standing farming resilience. While Mr Hands has made his money as a pub landlord, through music and as the owners of a string of McDonald’s restaurants in Nordic countries, among other ventures, CPC can draw from a long history in agriculture. It currently owns and operates nine station aggregations in Australia and two feedlots in Indonesia. To say the Madura Plains station is a big operation is an understatement. It includes 118 paddocks, with a telemetry-monitored 24-hour solar-water supply to 1500km of interconnected pipelines. The station has a whopping 376km of laneways and a 10,000-head feedlot. It had 70,000 sheep in 2024, and produced 1000 bales of wool per annum over the decade. Seller David Seth Cooper, of South Australia’s Cooper and Co, described it as a “best in class modern sheep station that fully capitalises on the production potential of the vast landholding and stock-water supply, whilst being resilient through the cycles”. “We have also invested to deliver operational efficiencies and maximise animal welfare and sustainability outcomes,” he said. “We are proud that we have achieved our vision and it’s now the right time for us to deliver the finished product to a new custodian. “We are delighted with the outcome of the sale process and excited to see what the future holds for Madura Plains after a period of significant development and investment by our family. “We are particularly pleased that the Madura Plains team will be retained and no doubt given great opportunities within CPC, given the scale and diversity of their operations nationally.” Chief executive of Elders Tom Russo, who helped facilitate the deal along with colleague Greg Smith, said the sale process was a vote of confidence of the Australian sheep and wool industry. The sale has already been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board. In some ways, the British connection marks a full-circle moment for the land, after the Madura lease was established in 1876 by G. Heinzmann, to establish a station for breeding cavalry horses destined for the British Imperial Indian Army. Madura Station was merged operationally with the Moonera Station in the 1980s by Jumbuck Pastoral Company, creating Australia’s second largest sheep station. “Ultimately, it’s exciting to see CPC invest again after their recent acquisition of Rawlinna,” Mr Russo said. “Whilst not quite contiguous, the two stations are in close proximity and will complement each other. We believe that the integrated operation is the largest sheep station in the world.”