Australia bars foreigners from buying collection of cattle ranches bigger than South Korea
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The Australian government has had barred foreigners from buying a company that owns the world's largest cattle ranch and other Australian farmland greater in area than South Korea.
The company, S. Kidman & Co. Ltd., owns 10 cattle ranches, a bull breeding stud and a feed lot covering 101,411 square kilometers (39,155 square miles). That's an area almost as big as the U.S. state of Virginia.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said in a statement on Thursday that the sale to foreign investors would be contrary to the national interest, partly because of national security issues.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Kidman owns the world's biggest cattle ranch, Anna Creek Station, which covers 23,677 square kilometers (9,142 square miles) of arid central Australia. Half of it is inside a military rocket firing range.