Cattle Empires
The North Australian Pastoral Company Pty Limited (NAPCO) is now one of Australia's largest beef cattle producers, with a herd of over 180,000 cattle and fourteen cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Australian Agricultural Company (AA Co) manages a cattle herd of more than 585,000 head. Heytesbury Beef Pty Ltd owns and manages over two hundred thousand head of cattle across eight stations spanning the East Kimberley, Victoria River and Barkly Tablelands regions in Northern Australia.
Cattle station has a parallel term, sheep station, for those stations carrying sheep rather than cattle. In most cases the stations are in a rangeland context on pastoral leases. Many are larger than small countries. Some stations are not exclusively sheep or cattle stations but have a mix of cattle, sheep and even goats to make the owner less vulnerable to changes in the wool or beef prices.
The phrase is also in traditional Australian English to denote something large and/or important.
Read more about this topic: Cattle Station
Famous quotes containing the words cattle and/or empires:
“Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it [the territory] is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)