Chinese buy Ord River cattle station from the Brits

A Chinese company has purchased a historic cattle station featured in the Baz Lurhmann film, Australia, in a deal worth about $60 million.

Spanning 476,000 hectares across the Western Australian Ord River District, the deal was almost two years in the making.

Shanghai Zhongfu-owned Kimberley Agricultural Investments is the new owner of Carlton Hill and Ivanhoe, which operate as one station on the doorstep of Kununurra.

The properties, settled by the pioneering Durack family in 1893, are split by a 35km stretch of the Ord River.

Consolidated Pastoral Company will lease back the properties, which cover 662,900ha, and continue to use them to run about 50,000 cattle.

KAI gains 15,000ha of freehold land which it plans to develop for irrigated cropping after the sale was ticked off by Foreign Investment Review Board before the Federal election and approved by the State Government this week.

KAI general manager Jim Engelke said about half of the 15,000ha parcel of freehold land was suitable for farming.

Consolidated Pastoral Company is owned by the Britain-based investment firm Terra Firma.