As a world leading producer of beef and agricultural products and Australia’s largest beef producer, AACo has a long and proud history.
We continue to diversify our operations into a vertically integrated agribusiness, backed by a solid history of sustainability and growth.
In 1824, AACo was established as a land development company with the assistance of the British Parliament’s Crown Grant of 1,000,000 acres in the Port Stephens area of the Colony of New South Wales. An image of the original Royal Charter is shown above.
In 1831 Shorthorn bulls were imported from England to develop the company herds. By 1850, despite droughts, depressions and some heavy stock losses, the company’s sheep numbers had risen to 114,118; cattle numbers to 8,306; and horse numbers to 1,436.
During World War I, from 1914-1918, there was a large labour shortage, especially for wool production, and so the company moved away from sheep to increase their cattle production. So began a process of selling southern estates and moving north, purchasing Headingly Station at Urandangie in Queensland in 1916 and Avon Downs in the Northern Territory in 1921.
At the end of the Second World War, the company became a specialised cattle enterprise and in the 1950’s Santa Gertrudis cattle were introduced to upgrade the Shorthorn herds. In the 1980’s, Braham cattle were introduced to the company’s new land in the Gulf region.
In 1990, the Goonoo aggregation was formed and developed in Central Queensland, and in 1994, a 17,500 capacity feedlot was established. Also in 1994, the purchase of a further breeding station, Austral Downs in the Northern Territory, led to specialisation of cattle production to maintain high growth rates.
In 2006, AACo purchased the Westholme herd, signifying a serious move into the Wagyu breed to build on the growing success of the branded beef business.
In 2014, AACo commissioned Livingstone Beef, a state of the art beef processing plant south of Darwin. It is currently being held in a suspended state.
Today, AACo is focused on the production of premium beef products for export and domestic consumption. Our beef feeds more than 1,000,000 people throughout the world every day.
