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S. Kidman & Co

Australian beef producing company

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ28224048 ↗
Source-derived summary

S. Kidman & Co is an Australian producer of beef. While it used to be one of the largest producers, since being owned by Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting since December 2016, it has been selling off its properties. As of 10 April 2023 it has four pastoral leases, one in the Northern Territory and three in Queensland.

History

S. Kidman & Co was founded in 1899 by Sidney Kidman. He was one of the greatest pastoral landholders in Australian history and became known by the nickname of "The Cattle King".

The entire landholding was placed up for sale in April 2015, comprising 11 cattle stations with a total area of over 100,000 square kilometres (38,610 sq mi) with a herd of 155,000 cattle. The total value of the company was estimated at A$360.5 million, and cattle stations in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory. In the year ending June 2015, Kidman recorded A$62 million in livestock sales, reflecting an increase of 10.71% on the previous year.

When two Chinese companies, Genius Link Asset Management and Shanghai Pengxin, were interested in acquiring the company in November 2015, the sale was blocked by the Treasurer of Australia, Scott Morrison, who cited the national interest clause in the Foreign Investment Act.

In December 2016, a Hancock Prospecting (67%) / Shanghai CRED (33%) joint venture purchased the company.

Editorial summary

“S. Kidman & Co” enters the record as australian beef producing company. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kidman, Australian and beef can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2016, 2023, 1899, 2015—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1899-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Kidman, Australian and beef.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“S. Kidman & Co” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kidman, Australian and beef provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28224048. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016, 2023, 1899 and 2015.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “S. Kidman & Co”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow S. Kidman & Co primary sources, S. Kidman & Co archive and Kidman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “S. Kidman & Co”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “S. Kidman & Co” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.