AUSTRALIA’S CATTLE KING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3139, 8 February 1911, Page 2

AUSTRALIA’S CATTLE KING.

OWNS AN AREA LARGER THAN

SCOTJ.A.M)

(From “Pastoral Celebrities” in the “Australian Pastoralists’ Review.”) Mr. Sydney Kidman, popularly 'known as Australia’s “Cattle King,” is a remarkable man. He started life at a. few shillings a. week, and now leases more land and owns more cattle than any other man in the Commonwealth. On his own authority it can be said that he never worries, does not smoke, drink, bet, nor swear, and has not forgotten the way to eat or sleep! He does not know what ill-health is. and cannot understand what people mean when they talk about beimr “off color,” or “not up to concert pitch.” Born near Adelaide on May 9th, 1557, he left school at fourteen years of age, and rode through Ivupunda—where his home now is—with a few shillings in bis pocket, and astride an animal which cost him dOs. He trekked through the country until he cam,-, to a station where Broken Hill is situated. He worked there for some time, and then bought a team of bullocks, and went carting between Wilcannia, Wentworth, and Menihdie. In drought times he got as much as £ls a ton from Wentworth to Monindie, and £25 a ton from Wentworth to Wilcannia. Selling his bullocks, Mr. Kidman went into the butchering business at Cobar. and became a landowner in a small wav. Water was selling at C’obar at Is "a bucket, flour £lO a hag and £TOO a ton. He gave up butchering for the excellent reason that lie could not obtain sunnlies °t beef or mutton. Mr. Kidman then acted as drover, being paid 25s per week lor overlanding cattle to Adelaide.

Receiving a few hundred pounds as bis share in his grandfather's estate, he bought horses in New Smith Wales and sold them in South Australia at £2O each. This gave him the start lie was waiting for, and Mr. Kidman then p.in:god into the business of mail contractor. oik' of h:s routes being between Terowie, in South Australia, to the new mining town of Broken Hill. In company with his brother he also opened up a butcher's shop at Broken Hill. He exchanged ten bullocks—“ Stores, mind you, not prime,” Mr. Kidman is' always careful to add—for a fourteenth original share in the Broken Hill mine, which he subsequently sold for £100! In running his various mail contracts, Mr. Kidman at one time was working 1200 horses, and was receiving a sub” sidy of £22,000 a year from three States

it was about this time that Mr. Kidman made Ills first venture in buying stations and dealing in stock, and it was then that he discovered his genius for that 'kind cf business. In one dealing trip in cattle through Queensland to the Gulf country lie made £40,000. Station after station lie bought with and without stock, and fortune seemed a 1 wavs ready to smile upon him. No matter how the drought may have tiouhied the previous owner, no sooner had Mr. Kidman completed the purchase of a property than the clouds would gather and a good fall of rain he recorded. The “luck of Kidman” has become a common saying outback m South Australia and Queensland. Mr. Kidman controls a number of stations in various States, and his total area would easily accommodate the whole of Scotland with something to spare. His holdings on his own account total something like 40,000 square miles, and he has “interests’" in land over and above this area. On Victoria Downs Station, in the Northern Territory (12,000 square miles), it is expected that the herds will total 100,000 this year. Mr. Kidman’s chief line is cattle, but every vpnr he organises the biggest horse sale in the world ! He buys horses or sends drafts from his own properties, and the sale is held at Kapunda, occupying more than a week, and attracting buyers from all quarters.