Australia's largest contiguous sheep station has been bought by billionaire Adelaide businessman Khalil (Charlie) Shahin, while the three South Australian stations — Commonwealth Hill, Mobella and Bulgunnia — leave the hands of Jumbuck Pastoral after being on the market for around two months. The sale covers nearly 1.3 million hectares in South Australia's far north-west. That's a huge stretch of land changing hands through a private deal, with no disclosed price and no say from the people who work it.
Who Holds the Land
Mr Shahin and his family have a combined wealth of $1.93 billion, putting them in the top 95 of Australia's richest families or individuals, according to this year's Rich List. Their money came through OTR, the petrol station and convenience store network founded by the family, which they sold for $1.2 billion in 2023. The sale was finalised last year. Now that capital is moving into agriculture, and the scale is the point. Since the OTR sale, the family has been acquiring massive agricultural stations under the business group ATAYF, which includes Mr Shahin, his wife and his daughters.
In 2024, the family purchased the 408,000-hectare cattle station Aileron in the Northern Territory. Now they've added another giant block of land. The pattern is plain enough. Wealth built in one sector gets parked in another, and the countryside becomes a place for capital to settle, expand and consolidate.
What the Sellers Say
The stations were sold by the family farming dynasty the MacLachlans under the company name Jumbuck Pastoral. The nearly 140-year-old company is one of Australia's oldest and most powerful farming families, with an empire that extended across South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales. Elders Real Estate chief executive Tom Russo, who oversaw the sale, would not comment on how much the three properties sold for.
Speaking with SA's Country Hour, Russo said the 1.29 million hectares in South Australia's far north-west was "some of the largest sheep productions ever offered to the market." He said, "We saw corporate investors, both domestic and international, have a good look at this asset. We also saw really strong incumbent local pastoral families participate in the process and run the ruler over the assets." He said the sale was part of the multi-generation farming family's proactive succession planning process.
Russo said, "Like all families, there comes a point in time where succession planning needs to be done and ... they've divested a few stations now," and added, "We can see now that that's the end of that ... and the group [Jumbuck Pastoral] … is now divided up between the siblings and they'll continue to run individual assets themselves and get on with creating their own legacies." The language is polished. The reality is a transfer of enormous productive land between wealthy families and investors, while the workers and communities around it remain outside the room.
The People at the Bottom
According to Jumbuck Pastoral's website, the Jumbuck North West Pastoral Aggregation of Commonwealth Hill, Mobella and Bulgunnia consists of 23 staff. Those 23 staff are the people tied to the day-to-day work of a 1.29 million-hectare operation. The article gives their number. It doesn't give them a voice.
Russo said the relatively quick sale of the 1.29 million hectares of traditional merino country, which was capable of running more than 83,300 sheep, was indicative of how Mr Shahin did business. Russo said, "He knows what he's looking for and he acts quickly and decisively," and added, "Charlie actually has agriculture in his blood. He studied agronomy back in the day … Charlie intends to keep running it as a sheep station. I think we can probably see an enterprise change in terms of perhaps some dorpers into the production mix."
That is the language of ownership talking to itself. The land, the sheep, the staff, the future mix of breeds — all of it gets discussed as an asset class, a production unit, a legacy project. The people who actually keep the place running are reduced to a line item.
Custodianship, According to the Owners
In a statement from Elders provided on Mr Shahin's behalf, the chairman of ATAYF said owning and working with agricultural assets had been "a lifelong ambition" of his. He said, "This acquisition is a long-term family investment. We intend to build on the foundations established by Jumbuck, support the existing operations and continue investing in the productivity and resilience of the enterprise for future generations," and added, "We have great confidence in the future of the Australian sheep and wool industry. Demand for high-quality natural fibre and premium protein continues to grow globally and Australia remains uniquely positioned to meet that demand."
Jumbuck Pastoral tried to dress the handover in the language of respect. In a company-wide newsletter released after the listing of the three sheep stations, Jumbuck Pastoral said the decision had "not been made lightly." Those words were reiterated in a statement from Elders on MacLachlan Pastoral Group executive director Callum MacLachlan's behalf, saying it was important to Jumbuck Pastoral that the stations were passed to an owner "who understood the significance of the assets, respected the work of the people who have managed them and shared our belief in the future of Australian agriculture." The statement said, "We have come to know Charlie [Shahin] and his family through this process and believe they will be excellent custodians of the aggregation."
"Their commitment to long-term investment, family values and Australian agriculture gives us great confidence that these stations have a bright future ahead of them."
It added, "While this transaction represents the end of one chapter, we are pleased that the next chapter will be written by another South Australian family with a genuine passion for the land and a multi-generational perspective." That’s the script: one dynasty hands the keys to another, and everyone calls it stewardship.
Jumbuck Pastoral was established in South Australia in 1888 by HP MacLachlan at Paratoo Station near Yunta. In more recent years, Jumbuck Pastoral announced it would start breaking up and selling off its massive agricultural assets as part of proactive succession planning. Last year, Jumbuck Pastoral sold the largest of its stations, Rawlinna in Western Australia's remote Nullarbor, to UK-based Consolidated Pastoral Company for an undisclosed sum. The deal included a flock of about 30,000 sheep and was subject to several conditions, including approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board and the WA government, which needed to sign off on the transfer of the pastoral lease.
The machinery of ownership keeps moving. The names change. The hierarchy stays intact.