Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore company to finally buy Roy Hill cattle station in Pilbara

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore company has struck a deal to buy the Roy Hill cattle station in the Pilbara, successfully closing the chapter on a long-running conflict with its leaseholders. The lease on the 397,000ha pastoral property, where Ms Rinehart’s 55 million tonne capacity Roy Hill iron ore mine is located, is being sold by veteran cattlemen brothers Murray and Ray Kennedy, whose family has owned it since 1972. The deal, conducted privately, is believed to include 4500 cattle and it is understood the property will continue to be run as a cattle operation within the Hancock Agriculture portfolio. The price has not been disclosed but on the open market it would be worth between $10 million and $20 million, according to an industry source. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage confirmed a request to transfer the Roy Hill lease had been lodged. The ageing Kennedy brothers, known for their tough negotiating skills, had until recently refused to budge as other mining companies bought up Pilbara cattle stations. It is understood Ms Rinehart had in the early days of the mine’s development offered to buy the pastoral lease but the parties could not agree on a price. In a 2013 ABC interview Murray Kennedy said Ms Rinehart offered just 25 per cent of the property’s value during the mine’s early development, which he described as “robbery”. For many years they battled with the mining company over its operations impacting on the viability of their pastoral business. The 2013 ABC interview saw Ray Kennedy claiming to have had an influence on the mine’s decision to abandon plans to put the railway through their grazing land. “We ended up making them go around, which cost them another $300 million,” Ray Kennedy told ABC in 2013. The brothers also opposed 80km of high voltage above ground power lines being put through their property, arguing it affected aerial mustering operations and put lives in danger. Roy Hill cattle station is located close to Ms Rinehart’s 313,000ha Mulga Downs property where her father Lang Hancock grew up and first started running pastoral properties as a sheep station. She put Mulga Downs up for sublease last year. The De Pledge and Edmunds families of nearby Hooley Station were chosen as the preferred bidder but the deal did not proceed after Peter Edmunds died in February. Hancock Agriculture, Australia’s second biggest beef producer, has since decided to retain Mulga Downs. Hancock Agriculture also operates cattle stations in the Kimberley and has Fossil Downs among its 25 properties, which have a total herd capacity of more than 340,000. Roy Hill and Hancock did not respond to enquiries and the Kennedy brothers could not be contacted.