Wagyu Rich Listers fatten outback portfolio with Qld deal
Peter and Jane Hughes, who are already among the world’s biggest producers of wagyu beef, have added to their extensive portfolio with a central western Queensland property, in a deal worth around $66 million.
The powerhouse couple are renowned for their wagyu operations, much of them based in Queensland. With an estimated wealth of $927 million, they ranked 170th of this year’s Financial Review Rich List.
The latest addition to that business is the 34,000-hectare Taylors Plains property, which has been established as a wagyu-focused operation by industry veterans Noel and Jo-Anne Chiconi. The property is about 100 kilometres north of Mungallala – between Charleville and Roma – in the heart of outback Queensland.
The Hughes family’s involvement in the cattle sector dates back to the 1870s. It owns Hughes Pastoral Co, Georgina Pastoral Co and Nebo Beef, and runs around 200,000 head of cattle across properties in Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern NSW.
One of the family’s biggest recent acquisitions was the 438,000-hectare Miranda Downs Station in Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria for more than $180 million in 2021, setting a record at the time for a single pastoral holding in Australia.
The Taylors Plains property was developed by the Chiconis over more than two decades and can support a herd of about 6500 cattle and fatten about 900 bullocks a year.
“The incoming buyer will need to spend virtually nothing on the property – the fencing, waters, cattle yards and accommodation are all in A1 condition, and Taylors Plains is in a highly regarded ‘safe’ area with an average of 605 millimetres of annual rainfall,” Noel Chiconi said when it went on the market in February.
“We have been breeding Wagyu cattle since 2014. They do very well on the dense stands of buffel supported by native grasses. Our decision to sell has not been taken lightly, but it’s time.”
The transaction was brokered by LAWD’s Col Medway and Grant Veivers.
It comes amid plenty of tailwinds for the beef sector. In the past week, all the major cattle price indicators lifted to their highest levels since the 2022-23 summer, according to the peak industry group Meat and Livestock Australia.
Along with other exporters, the beef industry has retained a competitive advantage after Australia was spared any further increase on the 10 per cent baseline rate previously imposed, after US President Donald Trump updated his tariff regime last Friday. However, Brazil, another big beef exporter, has been stung with 50 per cent tariffs.
As well, it appears local beef producers may face little competition on their home ground from US beef imports, now permitted after the federal government lifted long-standing bans last month.
The nation’s biggest supermarkets – Woolworths, Coles and Aldi – have said they will not stock US beef on their shelves, while major fast food chains including McDonald’s and Guzman y Gomez have indicated they won’t be using it in their products here.
