Australian business magnate Gina Rinehart has purchased Glencoe Station in New South Wales for $30m, to expand her Wagyu beef operation.
The Station, which is a 10,000 hectare property in north of Dubbo, is situated 20km away from the Wagyu cattle herds and two sites Boogadah and Kagan, which she bought for $25m in 2014 from businessman Paul Salteri, reported Farm Weekly.
The deal with Salteri included 1600 breeders. It is Rinehart's first beef investment beyond Western Australia, reported Beef Central.
Speculations of the Glencoe purchase began last week when the parent company Hartley Grazing Co put up 1000 Angus cattle for sale on AuctionsPlus on 27 November. Glencoe is owned by former Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation (AMLC) chairman and mining investor Dick Austen.
Rinehart intends to replace the angus herd with the Wagyu breed.
Last year, Gina Rinehart had announced plans to invest $500m in an infant milk powder joint venture Hope Dairies for export to China. However, that move came to a halt and now the land will be used for Wagyu-based beef production.
In November 2014, a memorandum with regard to the processing plant was signed between Rinehart, Queensland government and the project's Chinese partners. Work under the project entailed construction of a processing plant in southeast Queensland which was to be built on a 5,000 hectare farmland.
