Four vying for Cubbie Station irrigation property

Eastern Australia Agriculture, backed by Hong Kong-based Pacific Alliance Group, is one of at least four potential buyers of the 93,000-hectare private cotton irrigation property Cubbie Station in Dirranbandi, in southern Queensland.

Final offers for the three properties that make up Cubbie Station, which have total water storage capacity of 537,000 megalitres, are expected next month.

The station, at the centre of the federal government’s water buyback scheme, was placed into voluntary administration in 2009 with John Cronin, James Harris and Colin Nicol of McGrathNicol appointed as deed administrators of the Cubbie group of companies on July 6, 2010.

Since 2009, Cubbie Station has been controlled by NAB and Suncorp.

Attempts by Jones Lang LaSalle and the Royal Bank of Scotland to sell the irrigation plant last year were unsuccessful, the AFR reports.

The company is expected to deliver a bumper 2012 crop of $150 million on the back of heavy rains in 2011.