Australian Agricultural Company
The Australian Agricultural Company (AAco) is a corporation that raises cattle on a large scale and operated coal mines in Australia . It was founded in 1824 and is one of the oldest companies in Australia with the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac ), both of which exist to this day.
Australia's leading cattle breeding company is headquartered in Brisbane . The company has been listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 2001. The Company owned 77,000 km² of land in the Northern Territory and Queensland in 2010 , which is approximately 1.2% of the Australian land. The company operates 19 cattle stations, 3 fattening stations and 3 farms with 485,000 head of cattle.
founding
This society was founded in 1824 by the British Parliament with an act of law in New South Wales, whereby the British Crown guaranteed 4047 km² of land. The share capital was ₤ one million when it was founded.
AAco's founding members included 28 members of the British Parliament, the Governor of New South Wales Joseph Hume and eight directors of the Bank of England , the chairman of the East India Company with eight directors and other bankers and traders from England.
Cattle breeding
The company was founded in 1824 to raise merino sheep . To do this, society needed land. The first land assigned by the colonial government was at Port Stephens . It was unsuitable for its intended purpose and it was not until 1831 that 1010 km² around Warrah on the Liverpool Plains and 1270 km² at Goonoo Goonoo on the Peel River were allocated by Governor Ralph Darling . As early as December 10, 1831, the AAco opened Australia's first railway line.
At the same time, the AAco acquired shares in the coal mines in the Newcastle area. Convicts were used to work in the agricultural areas and in the coal mines. Despite economic problems in Australia's first economic crisis, which began in 1859 and resulted in significant losses on the stock exchange, the company owned 114,118 sheep, 8,306 cattle and 1,436 horses in 1860.
In the 1880s, refrigeration of sheep and beef became necessary to advance Australia's development from Queensland towards the Northern Territory, and further railroad construction was required.
Land prices in New South Wales fell dramatically at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to the poor economic development from 1925 to 1930, the prices for coal and wool fell and caused great economic problems in Australia.
After the Second World War , meat production increased continuously. Meat prices fell in the early 1970s, but AAco overcame this crisis and continued to exist. The AAco oriented itself further north. In 1985 the land at Goonoo Goonoo on the Peel River was sold after 170 years of ownership as the prices of land in southern Australia rose and the sale of land opened up new opportunities for the company to purchase land on the Gulf of Carpentaria at Gregory Downs , Canobie and Dalgonally . In 1987 more land was bought from Wondoola.
The AAco was heavily involved in the northern areas of Australia. The remaining land at Windy was sold in 1996, as was the Warrah property, which the company had owned for 165 years.
In 2000, the AAca sold 130,000 cattle out of a total of 363,000 to Asia, America and the Middle East and was listed on the Australian stock exchange again on August 10, 2001.
coal
The colonial government of New South Wales was unable to effectively organize the mining of coal in Australia and on May 3, 1833, AAco in New South Wales received 8 km² of land in Newcastle with the assurance of a 31 year long monopoly on coal transports. Due to this fact, the AAca became Australia's largest coal exporter for a long time. The Company purchased another 5 km² of land in the coal fields in southern Maitland near Weston near Kurri . In the 1840s, coal mining was more profitable than wool production.
After the First World War , the AAco gave up its activities in coal mining and sold the mines and devoted itself exclusively to cattle breeding.
Web links
- Australian Agricultural Company website
- Australian Agricultural Company Limited. Board Evaluation Process, Australian Agricultural Company Limited Board, July 28, 2004
- Information about the shares of AAco
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Australian Agricultural Company in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
literature
- Eardley, Gifford H., The Railways of the South Maitland Coalfields , Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Wales Division, 1969, (P / B), National Library of Australia catalog number AUS 69-2539
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information from AAco on the company's website ( memento of the original from March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 9, 2010
- ^ Information on the AAco website , accessed on May 9, 2010
- ^ JH Heaton (1984): The Bedside Book of Colonial Doings , Australian Dictionary of Dates containing the History of Australasia from 1542 to May, 1879. p. 18
- ^ Colliery Railways of the Australian Agricultural Company in the Newcastle District J. Webber, 'RF Wylie: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin. Pages 53-63, March 1968
- ↑ The development of the AAco from 1824 to 1860 on the company's website ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 9, 2010
- ↑ The development of the AAco from 1901 to 1950 on the company's website ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 9, 2010
- ↑ The development of AAco from 1987 to 2001 on the AAco website ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 9, 2010
- ↑ Phillips Valmai: Enterprising Australians, pp. 21-22, Kensington, New South Wales, 1984 ISBN 0858356473
