Australian Agricultural Company

The inquiry into the colony of New South Wales conducted by John Bigge from 1819 to 1823 recommended that large grants of land be given to "men of real capital" who would utilise significant levels of convict labour to maintain these estates. The inquiry was initiated by the Earl of Bathurst and John Macarthur to protect both the system of land grants to wealthy individuals and also the transportation system of cheap prison labour to the colony. As a result of the Bigge Inquiry, the Australian Agricultural Company (A.A.Co.) was formed by the Australian Agricultural Company Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 86), an act of the British Parliament and incorporated by royal charter on 1 November 1824 for the cultivation and improvement of waste lands in the colony of New South Wales and other purposes, amongst which was the production of fine merino wool for export to Great Britain. A group of about 400 well-connected British investors funded the company with a combined capital of one million pounds (made up of ten thousand shares of £100 each). A grant of one million acres (about 405,000 hectares) was obtained in the colony for agricultural development, subject to the performance of certain conditions, with the company to be allowed to select the location of the grant.

Among the principal members of this company were the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General of England, 28 members of Parliament, including Mr. Brougham, and Joseph Hume, the Governor, Deputy Governor and eight of the directors of the Bank of England; the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman and five directors of the British East India Company, besides many other eminent bankers and merchants of England. There were 41 investors based in New South Wales which included some of the wealthiest colonists such as the Macarthur family and Phillip Parker King.

The initial million acres selected under the founding charter extended from Port Stephens, embracing the Karuah River valley, to the Gloucester flats, and included all of the coastal region north to the Manning River. The company commenced its operations in 1826 with its first manager Robert Dawson, who stocked the property with flocks of Merino sheep. The wool produced by the company was to be exported to Great Britain to ensure a cheap reliable supply of British wool which at that time was being outpriced by German imports.

However, it soon found that better land was available and, in 1830, a communication from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Darling notified the latter that the company was to be permitted to select land in the interior of the colony, in lieu of an equivalent area at Port Stephens, but retaining mineral rights to the latter. After an inspection in 1833, the company decided on two new areas. These were the Warrah Estate of 101,010 ha (249,600 acres), west of Murrurundi, and Goonoo Goonoo estate of 126,787 ha (313,298 acres), along with the left bank of the Peel River to the south of present-day Tamworth, New South Wales. The township of West Tamworth adjacent to the present city was the original company-owned business centre for the area. In 1856, Arthur Hodgson was appointed general superintendent of the company. The pioneering settlers of the area were ordered to leave and paid little from the company for their properties.

Convicts soon became the companies largest type of employee, although those who had served a sentence, aborigines and indentured servants on seven-year contracts were also employed with the latter making up the bulk of initial employees. The AACo attempted to exploit convict labour to generate a profit. When the supply of convicts was facing potential limits in the mid-1830s, company directors attempted to source convicts from the city-state of Hamburg.

It is one of Australia's oldest still-operating companies. Its headquarters are today in Brisbane and it has been listed (or relisted) on the Australian Stock Exchange since 2001.