Former Rich Lister Jim Gorman pays $27m for Peabody cattle farm
Coal mining giant Peabody Energy has sold a 12,722-hectare pastoral holding in Central Queensland that was once earmarked for a major mining project, to former Rich Lister and mining entrepreneur Jim Gorman for $27 million.
The property known as Codrilla in Valkyrie, a rural hamlet about 140 km south of Mackay, was transferred to Peabody as part of its $5.1 billion acquisition of Macarthur Coal in 2011.
With the mining project not proceeding Peabody put Codrilla up for sale as a large-scale cattle fattening and breeding opportunity.
Records show it was bought by Mr Gorman’s Balanced Property for $26.8 million.
The sale was brokered by Kent Street and Russell Lindley from Ray White, who declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Peabody Energy also declined to comment.
Alongside his investments in the mining sector – including a 9.5 per cent share in ASX-listed Metro Mining Limited – Mr Gorman has an extensive Central Queensland cattle farming portfolio spanning more than 56,000 hectares. Since 2015, he has purchased over $38 million-worth of cattle properties.
Cadrilla is the second farming property Mr Gorman has purchased from Peabody Energy.
In 2015 he bought Seloh Nolem, a 6815-hectare cattle breeding and grazing property also in Valkyrie for $10.25 million.
Mr Gorman was one of a group of mining entrepreneurs, including the late coal miner Ken Talbot and current Financial Review rich lister Sam Chong, who opened the Jellinbah Mine, one of the country’s biggest coal mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
Mr Gorman sold his 23.3 per cent stake in the mine in 2007 for $270 million. He appeared on the Financial Review Rich List in 2009 with a wealth of $210 million.
In 2019, he made a handsome profit on the sale of Eskdale West, a 4316ha cattle grazing property west of Brisbane, which he sold for $9.8 million, having paid $2.6 million for it in April 2013.
The sale of Codrilla is the second major former mining site to be returned to the farming sector this year.
In January, twelve local farming families and one offshore corporate buyer acquired Chinese miner Shenhua’s former Watermark coal mine site near Gunnedah – a 16,500ha aggregation – for $120 million.
Alongside the sale of Codrilla, Albertina, a 2117ha cattle breeding property at Ashford in the NSW Northern Tablelands sold for $7.6 million last week at auction to a family with grazing interests.
Albertina, which includes seven kilometres of Severn River frontage, had been owned for 25 years by Graeme and Lorraine Olley. Bruce Birch and Andrew Starr from Ray White Rural NSW marketed Albertina.
