By Chris Spindler
The drought throughout much of rural Australia brings survival into question for many of the country's smaller producers. There are, however, rural producers who actually stand to gain from the drought. These are the people who already dominate many sectors of the economy.
The largest single corporate land-holder in rural Australia is S. Kidman & Co (an amalgamation of 3 families), with 12.4 million hectares. This represents a greater area than North Korea (12.1 million ha) or either Hungary or Portugal (each 9.1 million ha).
The Kidman & Co Anna Creek Station, at Marree in South Australia, is the largest single managed property in the southern hemisphere: 3 million ha.
While largest in area, Kidman & Co have less than half the number of livestock of some of the other largest producers. The next three largest rural land-holders — Stanbroke, Heytesbury and Australian Agriculture — all have well over 300,000 cattle on their properties.
The Stanbroke Pastoral Company comes in second in total area, with 9.6 million ha. The controlling interest in Stanbroke is the AMP Society.
Third with 7.5 million ha is Heytesbury Pastoral Company, owned by Janet Holmes a'Court. This empire stretches across three states and includes 25 different holdings.
Fourth is the Australian Agricultural Company, with 6.4 million ha, which is controlled by Colonial Mutual Life. Kerry Packer is also among the biggest rural owners. His Consolidated Pastoral Company has around 3.9 million ha.
The top private landowner, Hugh MacLachlan, owns 4.2 million ha, including "Commonwealth Hill", the largest sheep station in the world at almost 1 million ha.
Other familiar names which make it into the top 30 or so of rural land-holders are BHP, National Mutual and Mt Isa Mines. Others on the way up are GIO Australia and Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.
The plight of drought-stricken farmers is now a common point of media coverage. Much of the commentary suggests that farmers should have prepared for the drought, knowing that drought is a part of rural life in Australia.
But for many small and family producers, increasing interest payments and the increasing cost of farming inputs have meant that even good producing years don't provide enough surplus to permit planning years in advance.
There is a growing sentiment that banks should also share in the hardship in rural areas. However, banks have continued to collect mortgage payments, and in general record profits, while many producers face poverty and repossession of their properties.
There is little doubt that the names of big landowners won't appear on a bankruptcy note. It is more likely they will appear on more title deeds for properties sold up by smaller rural producers unable to last the drought with restricted or minimal government assistance.
The forced restructuring of the rural sector, most pronounced since the early 1980s, is only encouraged by the lack of support from governments for the financial hardship farmers are caused by the drought.
The restructuring is meant to facilitate a highly competitive rural sector able to compete on the global market. Financial assistance, through the Rural Adjustment Scheme, is generally available only for those farmers who can demonstrate that assistance will increase their size, productivity and performance. It isn't meant to be assistance for survival.
A large proportion of small and family farmers will be forced to sell up and leave the industry, a process encouraged by state and federal governments and accepted by organisations such as the National Farmers Federation.
This is clear from the recent South Australian state budget, which cut grants to farmers from $25.2 million to $13.1 million. At a time when South Australia is about to reach the desperate drought standards of New South Wales and Queensland, this means the forced exclusion of farmers from the industry.