OWNERSHIP OF AGRICULTURAL LAND



Estimates from ALWOS indicated that the total area of agricultural land in Australia on 31 December 2010 was 398 million hectares. Of this total, 353 million hectares, or 89% of agricultural land in Australia, were entirely Australian owned, 45 million hectares had some level of foreign ownership and 0.3 million hectares had an unknown ownership status.

Of the agricultural land with some foreign ownership, 168,500 hectares were owned by businesses which had less than 10% foreign ownership, 22 million hectares were owned by businesses which had between 10% and 50% foreign ownership and 23 million hectares were owned by businesses which had more than 50% foreign ownership.

Of the 23 million hectares of land which were more than 50% foreign owned, the greatest area (9.4 million hectares) was in Northern Territory and a further 3.1 million hectares were in Western Australia.

Proportionally, Victoria had the lowest level of foreign ownership of agricultural land, with 0.8% of its land (99,500 hectares) reported as having some level of foreign ownership. Northern Territory had the highest level of foreign ownership of agricultural land, with 24% of its land (14 million hectares) reported as having some level of foreign ownership.


The industry group reporting the highest proportion of Australian land ownership was the Nursery and Floriculture Production (ANZSIC 011), with 99%, or 279,000 hectares, entirely Australian owned.

The industry group reporting the highest proportion of some level of foreign ownership (therefore the lowest proportion of Australian land ownership) was the Sheep Beef Cattle and Grain Farming group (ANZSIC 014). More than 11% of this group reported some level of foreign ownership (representing nearly 44 million hectares), leaving approximately 88% or 329 million hectares entirely Australian owned.