Cubbie Station

Cubbie Station is located on the Darling Riverine Plains bioregion. The topography of the region is defined by channels and floodplains of the upper reaches of the Darling and Barwon rivers. Cotton was first produced in the region from the late 1970s. In 1983, Cubbie Station was converted from grazing purposes to cotton production. Cubbie Station comprises agricultural and non-agricultural lands; with approximately presently developed and a further under development. On 29 October 2009, Cubbie Group Limited, the former owner of Cubbie Station, announced it would voluntarily enter administration on the following day. The company had incurred debts of over A$300 million, as a result of poor rainfall in the region in the preceding five years. Corporate recovery specialists, McGrathNicol, were appointed as Administrators of the Cubbie Group on 30 October 2009. On 31 August 2012 the Australian Government, on advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board, approved the sale of Cubbie Group, to a consortium comprising Shandong RuYi Scientific & Technological Group Co Ltd, a clothing and textile company owned by Chinese and Japanese investors, and Lempriere Group, an Australian family-owned company involved in wool trading and agricultural property management. The approval provided RuYi with an 80% initial ownership interest on condition that this interest be reduced to 51% within three years. The interest is to be sold to an independent third party. The consortium are bound by existing water licence conditions The purchase of Cubbie Station by foreign interests had the support of the major opposition party in the Australian Parliament, the Liberal Party. However, there was dissension amongst some members of the Nationals, who had concerns with foreign-ownership of agricultural land and water rights, claiming that the sale is not in Australia's national interest. The purchase of Cubbie Group by the joint venture CS Agriculture was completed on 25 January 2013, for an estimated purchase price of A$240 million. In 2019 this sale was reversed and Shandong Ruyi sold 49% of Cubbie back to the Australian owned Macquarie Asset Management (MAM). In 2022, MAM acquired the remaining 51% stake in Cubbie Station, bringing its total ownership to 100%. ==Water rights==

The station was created by amalgamating twelve floodplain properties to give Cubbie a total of fifty-one licences. The station's water storage dams stretch for more than along the Culgoa River, within the Murray-Darling basin. In an average year the station uses of water, in a good year as much as . The water is used to supply of irrigated cotton and other crops including wheat, which generates a net profit in the range of A$50 million to A$80 million a year. The station is often derided for its large water usage requirements in a time of extreme drought in Australia and damage to the Murray Darling river system As part of the 49% purchase by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), CS Agriculture has agreed to voluntarily contribute 10 gigaliters of water to the Culgoa River without compensation. During his term as Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull did not rule out its possible acquisition by the Australian government. ==See also==