King Ranch (Tully River Station)
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cattle farming |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Founder | Bob Kleberg |
| Headquarters | Australia |
| Products | Cattle |
King Ranch (also known as Tully River Station) was a prominent cattle fattening enterprise founded in 1963 within the Wet Tropics of Queensland. Initiated by Bob Kleberg, a member of the Texas King family lineage, Kleberg obtained a lease from the Queensland Government covering predominantly lowland tropical rainforest. This territory, traditionally inhabited by the Dyirbal people, was leased at rates of A$5 per acre for forested areas and A$2 per acre for open land. The lease terms mandated land clearing, pasture establishment, and infrastructure construction to be completed within five years. Upon fulfilling these obligations, King Ranch was entitled to acquire the property as freehold at the original undeveloped cost. The government retained rights over timber harvested during clearing for its own use or sale, although much of this timber was probably burned onsite.
The development required large-scale clearing operations employing bulldozers and explosives, including swamp reclamation to satisfy freehold acquisition conditions. Livestock numbers expanded from zero to nearly 30,000 in just ten years, positioning King Ranch as the largest tropical cattle station in Australia at that time. After Kleberg passed away in the late 1980s, the Australian holdings were subdivided and sold, generating substantial financial returns. Subsequently, a significant portion of the land was repurposed for banana cultivation and sugarcane farming.