This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIA’S richest person, Gina Rinehart, has again added to her agricultural portfolio with the circa-$10 million collection of more farmland in Victoria’s Western District.
A fully-owned subsidiary of her Hancock Prospecting, Valley River Holdings Pty Ltd, has bought a 202-hectare mixed farming and grazing property, a 162-hectare livestock and dairy farm, and another 103.5-hectare livestock grazing farm.
The properties, acquired off-market, are located between Kennedys Creek and Simpson.
Rinerhart’s Hancock Prospecting had recently settled on the $8.6 million acquisition of mixed-farming property Chrome Park in the Western District.
The mining and agricultural magnate retained her title of Australia’s richest person as she became the first Australian to claim a fortune of more than $40 billion, according to this year’s Financial Review Rich List.
Rinehart has been reshaping her rural property portfolio in recent years. She has furthered her selldown of S. Kidman & Co cattle stations across the Northern Territory and Queensland, including the divestment late last year of four stations spanning 2.4 million hectares for more than $200 million.
That was followed by the purchase of two Wagyu cattle breeding properties from Canberran billionaire Terry Snow’s Packhorse Pastoral Company for $80 million, and in December, she bought the 1,918-hectare Split Rock Dairy in northern NSW that will be used to expand Hancock Agriculture’s Wagyu cattle backgrounding capacity.
Also in 2023, Rinehart paid a reported more than $20 million for 2,000 hectares of mixed farmland in south west Western Australia.
Rinehart has also been expanding her broader commercial real estate portfolio. In November, she splashed out $240 million on the 175 Eagle Street Brisbane office building owned by a Charter Hall fund, which followed her $100 million purchase earlier in 2023 of 70 Eagle Street from US funds group Pembroke.
