Outback NT cattle station sold to former Supercar driver with taste for buffalo meat

The 29,010 hectare (71,685 acre) station, located 118km south-east of Darwin was sold with about 2600 cattle for $9.3 million.

Mr Schembri, a New South Wales businessman, is said to be attracted also to the future of the buffalo industry.

He has told media he plans to further develop the domestic buffalo trade.

His core business is in organics recycling and land rehabilitation projects.

Annaburroo was formerly owned by Greg Thompson of Darwin.

The station is centred on Point Stuart, 70km from Adelaide River and features Mary River floodplains and 810ha that have been cleared for farming.

The station has a 35km boundary with the Mary River.

Manager Adrian Phillips is expected to remain at the station to continue running the beef herd and increase buffalo production.

Mr Phillips has previously told Australian Community Media they have been running 500 buffalo breeders and 2500 Brahman on Annaburroo Station.

Their swamp buffalo target mostly the live-ex trade while they also have a line of purebred Riverines in partnership with Wildman River Stock Contractors, from which they crossbreed. The plan is for the hybrids to supply the domestic restaurant trade.

"The Riverine meat has more white fat, more marbling and a lot better eye muscle," Adrian Phillips, a butcher by trade, said.

The hybrids also grow around 30 per cent faster.

There were other producers crossbreeding buffalo but most were going to live-ex, which Mr Phillips said was unfortunate because the potential to build domestic demand, given the good eating quality of the meat, was very strong.

He's hoping to eventually launch a paddock-to-plate buffalo brand, saying the pristine NT grass-fed raised animals produced a lean and very healthy protein that would meet many emerging consumer demands.

Buffalo are also a brilliant addition to cattle operations, he said.

"In the more marginal type of country, the buffalo do a lot better than cattle," he said.

"They are good mothers, very fertile and well-handled buffalo are nothing but a pleasure to work with.

"We use them as part of a rotational grazing program - they eat the more fibrous plants and assist in weed control."

Annaburroo Station was at the centre of calls for a stock squad to be formed in the NT back in 2011 after livestock was shot dead by 'reckless hunters' on the Arnhem Highway.

Three Brahman cattle and two buffalo were killed at properties adjacent to the highway.

Mr Phillips said their animals had become targets for reckless hunters and shooters.

Stock theft and killings are ongoing challenges for pastoralists in the Territory, Mr Phillips said.

Mr Schembri is the founder of Greenspot which looks to rehabilitate fossil fuel sites, including Lithgow's coal-fired Wallerawang Power Station in NSW's Central West back in 2021.