OTR Billionaire Charlie Shahin Buys Australia’s Largest Sheep Station
Synopsis
The Shahin family has acquired three South Australian outback stations spanning nearly 1.3 million hectares from Jumbuck Pastoral and plans to continue operating them as sheep properties.
Charlie Shahin has increased his farming enterprises following the purchase of three South Australian pastoral properties from Jumbuck Pastoral in one of the nation's biggest sheep station deals in recent years.
The purchase of Charlie Shahin sheep station encompasses a total area of 1,289,700 hectares (12,897 square kilometres) and an estimated 53,333 Merino sheep, of which 37,547 are breeding ewes. The stations have a carrying capacity of more than 83,300 sheep. There is no indication of the purchase price.
ATAYF, a private investment company owned by the Shahin families, completed the acquisition. Shahin, who developed the OTR convenience retail business before its sale to Viva Energy in 2024, assured the properties would still be in use as sheep stations.
Succession Plan Leads to Major Pastoral Sale
The sale of the Jumbuck Pastoral is a piece of the MacLachlan family's long-term succession plan. Jumbuck Pastoral was founded in 1888 and will maintain its vast holdings of sheep and cattle stations throughout South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory following the deal.
The three neighbouring stations were sold earlier this year via Elders in the far north-west of South Australia. Callum MacLachlan said the sale would enable the family's farming operations to become independent, but keep the land in South Australian hands.
Large Pastoral Assets Remain in Demand
The Charlie Shahin sheep station purchase is following a trend of demand for large land holdings in agriculture all across Australia. Australia is still among the world's leading exporters of wool and sheep meat, with major markets such as the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and a number of Middle Eastern nations.
Its landholding, combined with that of Shahin, is larger than the land area of several other nations, such as Qatar (11,586 sq km), Lebanon (10,452 sq km), Jamaica (10,991 sq km), Cyprus (9,251 sq km) and Luxembourg (2,586 sq km).
The sale of the pastoral property at Commonwealth Hill is one of the largest of the pastoral land sales to be announced in Australia this year, and follows a string of high dollar sales of agricultural land as family owned pastoral enterprises carry out succession planning and land restructuring.
Source: ABC News
Pooja Malik is a business journalist with over six years of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, and emerging trends. She has previously worked with leading media platforms such as YourStory Media and BW BusinessWorld, where she reported on business, policy, and market developments. Currently, she serves as Editor at The Inspirepreneur Magazine, where she writes and edits stories across business, lifestyle, and travel, with a focus on clarity, accuracy, and reader relevance.
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