Australian territory bigger than Scotland on sale for £175m
When the land reform agenda and its implications for rural relations in Scotland is hitting the headlines – with policy resonances south of the border this article make you think!!! It tells us:
Australia is selling the largest private non-state and non-monarchical stretch of land in the world – a 39,000 square mile series of cattle stations worth an estimated £175 million. The family-owned estate – bigger than Scotland and three-quarters of the size of England – was founded in 1899 by Sir Sidney Kidman, Australia’s so-called “cattle king”. The infographic map in this article – ‘how big is the estate and how much is it worth?’ – illustrates the vast scale of the outback compared to the UK.
The sale has attracted interest from more than 30 bidders across the world, including farming families, investment syndicates, meat companies, foreign investors and global pension funds from China, the United States, Britain, Switzerland and Canada. However, the sale has proven controversial in Australia and led to calls by some MPs to ensure the property is not sold to a foreign state-owned investor.