Kleberg .. King Ranch • . Runl add up to nearly 10 millio1 of cattle land across our Wben historians even­ amass. As a pastoral spe­ abroad. But the black gold 51 (member of a long estab­ Sir Rupert is corporation Two properties, Elgin tually sit down to compile cialist Kleberg has few was risked and is helping to lished land family with large chairman today and the Downs and New Twin Hill! their list of greats for the peers, and is certainly the burn the Running W into holdings in Queensland and company has been made se­ were available on Ion~ 20th century, the name of most professional in the tens of thousands of cattle _the Northern Territory). nior holding group for all leaseholds from the Queens· Texas cattle baron Robert fields of range grasses, across the world. They were the aristocrats Australian operations. Capi­ land Government which Justus Kleberg Jr. undoubt­ horse and cattle genetics But before the fusing of of the country's pastoralists tal outlays so far are ac­ gave Kleberg a further as­ edly will be among them. and cattle pharmacopoeia, hot iron and beef flesh, - men Australians would knowledged to be about $15 surance that huge tracts of As reigning head of the outside universities and gov­ came his quest for land. It know, and through whom million. adjacent land would be family kingdom of King ernment bureaus. began in the early 1950s and they would come to know Sir Samuel Hordern died available at modest rates it Ranch Incorporated. Kle­ Applying this knowledge the three areas chosen to put King Ranch and what it in a car smash nine years he and I.P.L. wanted to ex­ berg, 73, has founded a beef and his genius for breeding, his cattle to the test were. stood for. Kleberg asked ago, and the young Baillieu pand. industry across four conti­ Kleberg set about his monu­ Australia, Cuba and BraziL (now in his late 30's) is acti­ King Ranch and l.P.L. nents on more than mental quest for land, those The Australian venture, ... t\1~ -- . ··. vely directing stud oper­ (now Deltec) formed a sub­ 11,500,000 acres of land. vast wet tropical tracts because of its enormity and -· ·. uu.. ~ ations and shares with Sir sidiary, Associated Stations He is fulfilling his role as across the earth where a accelerated development ._· • z ..,;!!. ' • - -· ..J Rupert the management of Pty. Ltd., to lease the land the world's biggest pastoral thriving beef industry is in has overshadowed all other them for near total com­ commercial stations in and raise and fatten com­ landlord on a level un­ the making. operations. Kleberg saw the mitment, to retire from any­ which the Australian part­ mercial steers. Now with thought of 20 years ago. But for his Santa Ger­ flat, treeless range and was thing that might keep them ners are involved with King surrounding land taken on His cattle graze across the trudis breed Kleberg prob­ reminded of home. Land from giving enough time to Ranch. lease, Associated's holdings United States (970,000 ably would never have left was cheap (where it was to his plans. A tall order, but it Kleberg's first Australian in the Clermont area cover acres) , South America the United States. It linked be had), and cattlemen were was all right with them. buy was the 7500-acre Ris­ 1060 square miles (679,000 (513,000 acres), Africa (7000 the best qualities of the finding it hard with the Brit­ A corporation was set up, don cattle station near War­ acres) most of which has acres), and his biggest in­ Brahman - resistance to ish breeds. King Ranch (Australia) Pty. wick. Looking north he saw been cleared. vestment in future beef, heat, insects and disease - Before his land, Kleberg Ltd. with Robinson as a di­ the brigalow and gidyea Having a firm operational Australia- 9,754,000 acres. with the wonderful beef - chose his men - William rector, and its primary func­ scrub plains near Clermont. base Kleberg then moved to And in addition, King producing characteristics of Sydney Robinson (who died tion to manage the stud He selected two flat areas to introduce his Santa Ger­ Ranch is negotiating for a the deep-thighed, broad­ in 1963), Sir Rupert Clarke herd. The Australians took start a commercial oper­ trudis stock into the coun- ~ further 1,300,000 acres in the backed Shorthorn. (great grandson of a pio­ minority equity positions, ation with International try. But fearful pastoralists Kimberley mountains in the The Santa Gertrudis was neering pastoralist in Tas­ along with an option that as­ Packers Ltd. (which merg­ started a foot-and-mouth northern uplands of Western certified as an authentic mania) , Peter Baillieu (W. sured them an aggregate 30 ed in March with Deltec disease scare which led to Australia. new breed by the American S. Robinson's grandson), per cent share ip the enter­ Panamerica S.A., to form demands that the animals be j The King Ranch lands run Department of Agriculture and Sir Sam Hordern, then prise (if they wanted it). Deltec International Ltd. ) slaughtered. right through the hot cli­ in 1940, and gave Kleberg mates where much of the the key to the tropics, pre­ human race lives on the viously too wet, too dry, or brink of famine. Sturdy San­ too hot to support the finest ta Gertrudis stock bred by European beef cattle bred Kleberg's own hand defy the for good grass and temper­ shimmering heat and hold ate climates. new hopes for unborn mil­ t • • ~ • J • • • ,, l lions in these lands. It is a heritage which was -~· ..,.:· i . spawned on the advice hand­ .· . ,..-;:""' ~"- ed down more than a cen­ Today the descendants of tury ago in America by the Monkey, the cherry-red bull famous Lieutenant Colonel and founding sire of his Robert E. Lee to kingdom breed, stand as sturdy testi­ founder Captain Richard mony to the leadership of King:- the Running W brand of " Buy land, and never sell." King Ranch. Admittedly the advice Fate favoured Kleberg in took time to seed. From 1853 his empire-building. Oil in when Captain King acquired commercial quantities was the big white villa along the discovered beneath his Santa Gertrudis Creek in Texas lands in 1945, and to­ south Texas - still the com­ gether with enormous re­ pany's headquarters- until serves of natural gas, have the early years of Robert helped underwrite his ven­ Kleberg J r _, grandson of the tures. From $15 million to pioneering Captain, the Kle­ $18 million a year has been bergs were content to stay flowing into his funds re­ within their fences. cently. The holding was big - It would have been easy to 90,000 head on 1,200,000 sit back and grow rich from acres - but it was only a oil, or to plough the millions paddock compared with the into less vulneraple in­ empire Kleberg was to vestments than cattle Road trains moving cattle from the King Ranch property, Brunette Downs, Northern Territory. 8 The Sunday Mail Color Magazine, October 12, 1969 KING RANCH SUNDAY liAIL ... 12.10.1969 (• - .. - ...;..::~ "ri..· -~ •. -~....,.... .. -~- .....J';·_l''l·~ ~ .· . -~-- ... no:: f!~~~ ~_11!.. .. ;r· • -..Z. , •••• • acres .. 15... -· . r .:.. .. , - ~.. -1 _ ~-....... ~.-- . ~~ - g; ~ .. .. ----~ 1111 - ------·- ~--- ·-- -----~ - -· - ·- -- --~- - ountry _ __.,. .-rr' ··-~ ....~. ~-. ~. ~ ··t·~- ~ ~~-~ ...,........., .,, -~~-~- -· ..J c ' ~ r Kleberg reacted boldly. grass, standing like hay in His "prestige" Australian the searing heat. Land clearing being carried out by King Ranch at Tully River Station, North Queensland. partners sought and got the Kleberg took over the severest tests which cleared Downs the same year from a fered the 1500-acre Milton semination on a scale new to for the conquering Texan to land, and $2 an acre for open the stock. Later at Risdon 10 drought-weary family. Some Park, at Bowral, 80 miles Australia. The programme pass up. Nobody had thought fields. The State also went of the young .bulls went un­ 30,000 cattle died in the first south of Sydney. Owned by already produces a consid­ of the land as beef country one further and reserved the ~ der the auctioneer's ham­ year of the dry, and the re­ Anthony Hordern (Sam's erable fraction of the Santa until he did in 1962. felled timber for itself. ;&. mer for an average nod of maining 30,000 were headed uncle) , the estate boasted a Gertrudis stock bred here. He passed the real chal­ There was the traditional $2595 a head, believed to the same way when the 38in. average annual rain­ Supplies are being stock­ lenge over to an Oklahoman, radical " Yank sellout" cry, ::'- have been a record for any rains came. fall. Kleberg paid $400,000 piled too as insurance Lowell Wilkinson, King's but it fell on futuristic ears. .. breed. The 3-million acre proper­ for it, and soon after added against herd decimation. land-clearer, who spent A Herculean effort was ty passed to King Rancn and another 1500 acres from the (The cattle import ban ex­ three months exploring the mounted and it was needed. --~:· _,·.,, w··~ its Australian partners on adjoining Retford Park, of­ tends to frozen semen as area in a Land Rover. He It took five years to clear .a.:\··"'J'L''.-.... •._.... · . .. .... lease from the State at an fered by Hordern's widow. well). came out with this solu­ the Tully River rain forest. .. annual rental of $1.12 a Risdon was sold, and the . - .;,, tion:- Wilkinson recalls the priva­ In 1956 a ban was placed square mile. The Australian foundation herd trucked The forest could be made tions of "charging alligators on the import of ALL cattle owners received $2 million south to what is today the fi­ into good cattle country, but ( crocs to us ), and snakes, following an outbreak of for the wrap-up deal.