WA pastoralist Brent Smoothy eyes up Balfour Downs in East Pilbara

Prominent WA pastoralist Brent Smoothy says he could be interested in buying the iconic East Pilbara cattle station Balfour Downs, provided it came at the “right price”. Balfour Downs and the attached Wandanya Stations are being sold by Chinese billionaire owner Xingfa Ma, which independent commentators have estimated could fetch up to $40 million. Mr Smoothy would not be drawn on what the right price would be, but he knows the property well. It was where he first landed a job as a helicopter pilot after arriving in WA almost 21 years ago from Queensland. “I cut my teeth at Balfour, I don’t need to look too hard. I know it well and know it’s a good station,” he said. Balfour Downs is separated from Mr Smoothy’s Panorama and Hillside Pilbara Stations by billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill operations, but considered a close neighbour in pastoral station terms. Mr Smoothy told The West Australian last year he was reducing his exposure to the live export market. He said comments from Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan in 2018 prompted him to turn over $50m in farming property to minimise exposure to the market. He said it appeared Mrs Rinehart’s recently announced plan to sell seven cattle properties was also a move to reduce exposure to the live cattle industry in favour of domestic processing. “Gina Rinehart is not running away from the cattle industry as some say,” he said. “If you look at the properties she’s selling it’s the stations most exposed to the live export markets. Most of those properties have grey Brahman cattle herds which are suited for export. “The properties she is retaining have herds that are more suited to the domestic processing market, droughtmaster, and wagyu. It looks to me like she’s just cherry-picking where there is the most future in cattle.” Mr Smoothy also revealed he has added two more Queensland holdings worth $10m to his vast cattle empire. This week he completes transactions on two irrigated properties near Theodore in Queensland. These include the 400ha Castle View and 2500ha Wolloon. The properties are on either side of his Overview property, which was acquired last year. The larger aggregation will be used to grow Leucaena cattle fodder under irrigation, where many of his Pilbara-raised cattle would be finished. Following his latest purchases, Mr Smoothy’s agricultural property portfolio comprises 654,000ha of Pilbara cattle stations and 12,000ha of irrigated and grazing farmland in Queensland. Outside agriculture, Mr Smoothy founded and remains a major shareholder of the $320m Australian-listed Kalium Lakes project, set to become one of Australia’s first sulphate of potash mines, starting production this year.