The Australian Agricultural Company (AA Co) is a company which serves to improve beef cattle production through responsible natural resource and land use. Founded in 1824 through an Act of the British Parliament, with the right to select one million acres in New South Wales for agricultural development, it is one of Australia's oldest still-operating companies. Its headquarters are today in Brisbane and it has been listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 2001.

General

Amongst the principal members of this company were the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General of England, 28 Members of Parliament, including Mr. Brougham, and Mr. Joseph Hume, the Governor, Deputy Governor and eight of the directors of the Bank of England; the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman and five directors of the East India Company, besides many other eminent bankers and merchants of England. All shares were speedily taken up apart from 500 which were reserved. Sir Edward Parry, the Arctic Navigator, arrived with Lady Parry, from London, in the 'William', to take charge of the Australian Agricultural Company's property in New South Wales, December 24, 1829. Heaton, J.H. 1984, The Bedside Book of Colonial Doings, previously published in 1879 as 'Australian Dictionary of Dates containing the History of Australasia from 1542 to May, 1879, p.18

The area selected under the founding charter extended from Port Stephens, embracing the Karuah River valley, to the Gloucester flats, and to the Manning River, including most of the northern shore of Port Stephens, extending to 464,640 acres. The company had commenced its operations in order to improve flocks of Merino sheep in New South Wales.

However, it soon found that better land was available and, in 1830, a communication from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Darling notified the latter that the company was to be permitted to select land in the interior of the colony, in lieu of an equivalent area at Port Stephens, but retaining mineral rights to the latter. After an inspection in 1833, the company decided on two new areas. these were the Warrah Estate (249,600 acres), west of Murrurundi, and Goonoo Goonoo Estate (313,298 acres), along with the left bank of the Peel River to the south of present-day Tamworth, New South Wales. The township of West Tamworth adjacent to the present city was the original company-owned business centre for the area.

Coal

On 3rd May 1833 the company received land grants at Newcastle totalling 1,920 acres plus a 31 year monopoly on that town's coal traffic. The company became the largest exporter of coal from Newcastle for many decades. They also bought 1,280 acres of freehold and 3,131 acres of leasehold land on the South Maitland coalfields at Weston, near Kurri Kurri, where they built the Hebburn Colliery. By December 1903 the pit was sending a fully loaded train away each day. By 1912, the output exceeded 2500 tons per day and a large overseas trade had developed from this mine. In May 1906 the company purchased a half-share in the Aberdare Junction to Cessnock railway for £40,000 which, already owning the other half, placed them in full ownership of the line. With the post-Great War slump, the company ceased its coal-mining activities in the early 1920s, sold their assets therein, and moved on into the cattle industry.

The AA Co's coat-of-arms are affixed to two stone columns erected in Gordon Avenue, Hamilton - one near Parry Street and one near Tudor Avenue - in an area once known as Newcastle's Garden Suburb.

It currently has a staff of over 500, and operates 24 cattle stations and 2 feed lots, consisting of over 524,000 beef cattle.^*

References

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• Webber, J, and Wylie, R.F., Colliery Railways of the Australian Agricultural Company in the Newcastle District in Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no.365, March 1968, vol.XIX (New Series).

• Eardley, Gifford H., The Railways of the South Maitland Coalfields, ARHS, Sydney, 1969, (P/B), National Library of Australia catalogue number AUS 69-2539

External links

• Australian Agricultural Company

Companies of Australia | Companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange