Article by Chris Herde, courtesy of The Australian Business Network
29.01.2026
A joint venture between Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart and a Chinese investor has put has a renowned cattle property in the state’s west on the market, saying $1m a year in foreign land tax left it with no choice.
S Kidman & Co – a joint venture of Hancock Prospecting and China’s Shanghai Cred – has put the 14,600ha Rockybank aggregation near Roma up for sale as well as two other linked stations.
A Hancock Agricultural spokesman said they have made the “difficult and unavoidable decision” to divest its Rockybank aggregation due to the ongoing impact of Queensland’s land tax regime.
“Rockybank is freehold agricultural land and, due to S Kidman & Co having a minority foreign investor, Rockybank is subject to Queensland land tax rates, which have increased year-on-year following successive Queensland Government revaluations,” he said.
“They are projected to approach $1m per annum in the coming years, rendering the property commercially unsustainable to operate, with any minority foreign investor.
“This is occurring alongside the growing costs of complying with damaging and misguided federal government net zero targets and associated government tape and regulatory burdens.”
The 2016 acquisition of S Kidman by the joint venture preserved the historic, 101,000sq km pastoral company under majority Australian control, with Ms Rinehart as executive chair.
However, Shanghai Cred’s one third minority ownership of S Kidman, still qualifies Rockybank under the provisions of Queensland’s foreign land tax.
The foreign land tax was introduced some years ago by the former Labor state government on freehold land assets and it was targeted primarily at metropolitan residential and commercial investments, but has also impacted on agriculture. The current LNP government has not moved to change the tax.
Rockybank is a premier beef grazing property and stud breeding centre and it specialises in Wagyu beef production and bull breeding.
S Kidman and Hancock Agricultural have also put its Holyrood 4844ha and 1567ha South Maffra properties in the Maranoa region – used principally within the companies’ pastoral networks for bull breeding and backgrounding work – on the market.
The Hancock spokesman said the two properties were also put on the market because, without Rockybank as part of the broader Roma aggregation, the loss of economies of scale meant these properties are no longer commercially viable to operate in isolation.
“These land tax settings do not apply in the same way to agricultural land used for primary production in other Australian states and territories,” he said.
“The sale process is now underway, with discussions commenced with agents and valuers. Hancock and S Kidman & Co are working closely with employees throughout this unfortunate process.”
