Bidders Emerge for Australia's Largest Cotton Farm

By Jim.Robinson|October 8, 2009

Cubbie Station, located in western Queensland, is Australia’s largest cotton-producing farm and biggest irrigation property. It’s also for sale. This week, five bids were submitted on the property that is worth an estimated $398 million (U.S). Three of the bids came from overseas groups, while two were from domestic groups. None of the bidders have been identified, but Keith De Lacy, chairman of Cubbie Group Ltd., did confirm that the Australian federal government did not place a bid.

The Cubbie Group Ltd. will be considering and negotiating the bids over the course of the next three to four weeks, De Lacy said.

In August, the Cubbie Group put the farm and two other properties up for sale as a debt-cutting measure.

Cubbie Station has been at the center of controversy for years. With its large dams, Cubbie has been accused by some of the nation’s farmers of siphoning off more than its share of Australia’s water resources. While the station is licensed to take more than 400,000 megaliters of water per year, drought conditions in recent years have kept its intake well below that level.

According to The Australian, of the property’s 93,320 hectares, 22,256 hectares are developed for irrigation. It has 538,000 megaliters of storage capacity. The water and the land cannot be sold separately.