The eldest son of Heytesbury chairman Janet Holmes á Court, Peter returned to Australia in November 2000 after 14 years abroad. After cashing in his inherited 15 per cent share in Heytesbury for $35 million, he is keen to prove himself in his new venture. Already, he has flagged his intention of building the company's herd from 360,000 head to more than a million by 2004, with an aim of achieving lower production costs and greater economies of scale.

Australia's oldest beef producer, the Australian Agricultural Company has a proud 175-year history. Its 19 stations throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory span 6.5 million hectares of prime cattle country. One of the properties, the vast Brunette Downs on the Barkly Tableland, last month played host to Operation Outback, in which more than a dozen food writers were invited to "Steak your claim. See for yourself why Australian beef is the best in the world." Organised in conjunction with Meat & Livestock Australia, we were flown in to Brunette Downs, which is the largest pastoral lease in the Northern Territory and one of the largest cattle properties in the world. It was an ambitious exercise, the likes of which had not been undertaken before.

Henry Burke and his wife, Bernadette, managers of the station since January, host a never-ending stream of visitors to their property but had never dressed for a black-tie dinner on their front lawn. As the sun sank low on the horizon, the candles were lit and the beautifully dressed tables were graced with a splendid array of dishes prepared by Aria chef, Matthew Moran, who flew in from Sydney especially for the occasion. And yes, the beef was exceptional. Henry Burke runs a slick operation at Brunette, but willingly volunteers that he left school half-way through Year 7, rolled his swag and went to work. One of eight children, he grew up on a "battler's block" near Cloncurry and could barely read or write before he met Bernadette. All of his skills have been acquired through sheer hard work and a love of the land.

At this special dinner, Burke sat back in his tuxedo, which Bernadette had hastily arranged to be flown in from Townsville, and listened to his boss singing his praises. Burke returned the praise to Holmes á Court. "You're doing a good job," he said. Then just as quickly, he added "to date" and proceeded to laugh enormously at his effrontery. No room for egos when there's work to be done. "See, these guys keep me on my toes," said Holmes á Court, who acknowledges that it is his staff who are the company's best asset. Jokes aside, Burke, who has worked for the Australian Agricultural Company for the past 15 years, is grateful for the value the company places on its staff.

In a ground-breaking initiative, the company has set up a program to award formal qualifications to station managers and head stockmen who, in many cases, run multi-million-dollar businesses without any formal recognition. The Frontline Management Initiative program is conducted by distance education from the Open Learning Institute in Brisbane, and the first 21 participants in the program graduated with diplomas of management in October. Carmel Wagstaff, who managed Brunette Downs with her husband Geoff before the Burkes took over, was instrumental in setting up the program, a workplace-based assessment framework which recognises competencies held by managers and identifies gaps in knowledge where further training may be required.

Wagstaff, named NT Businesswoman of the Year last year, is now based in Brisbane where she works as the company's training and recruitment coordinator. Before she left Brunette, she fulfilled her dream of producing a cookbook. The Brief on Beef Cookbook was published in 1999 to celebrate the company's 175th anniversary. The spiral-bound book contains recipes from around 40 company employees including some of northern Australia's best beef cooks. Many are quite traditional, some even quaint.

Thirty-five people are employed at Brunette Downs and all live on the station, a cook providing meals for the single employees. The stockmen and women are divided into three stockcamps, two of which work around 50,000 commercial cattle. The third camp is responsible for a 10,000 head bull-breeding herd. Kerryl O'Rourke is head stockwoman for the bull-breeding herd and a typical example of the skilled and passionate jillaroos and jackaroos working on the property. O'Rourke overseas a composite breeding program which began four years ago and involves the joining of 1,500 Santa Gertrudis cows with Charolais and tropically adapted Senepol. The performance of the composite breed will be monitored over the next two years, and numbers will be increased if there is convincing evidence they are more productive and profitable than pure-bred Santa Gertrudis cattle. Brunette still has Australia's largest herd of pure-bred Santa Gertrudis, a breed introduced 40 years ago by then owner, King Ranch.

Over the last few months, the Australian Agricultural Company has taken the first few steps in implementing its branding strategy, first with an expansion into retailing and, most recently, into the food service sector. Its acquisition of a 51 per cent share in Melbourne retailer Polkinghorne's puts into practice the paddock to plate principle. Rod Polkinghorne and co-director Judy Philpott operate an innovative store in Melbourne's Albert Park where they sell fresh meat and employ in-store chefs to produce a range of ready-cooked meals. There are plans to expand the business with company-owned or franchised stores.

Rod Polkinghorne is a cattle producer and experienced retailer, having previously managed Sandhurst Foods and Coles Myer's Rural Operations. He is also an expert in meat grading, having spearheaded the development of the Meat Standards Australia system, which uses scientific methods to grade beef according to its tenderness. "[The acquisition of Polkinghorne's] provides us with the intellectual firepower to develop our branding strategy, while also delivering us a flagship retail outlet and development kitchen in the country's food capital, Melbourne," said Holmes á Court. "Polkinghorne's creates new pathways for AACo product to the consumer, as well as the food-service, restaurant and wholesale markets. "Developing the connection between farm and customer is the key, in our view, to building a strong beef brand and is consistent with beef branding trends evident in overseas markets."

Late last month, the company formed a joint venture with leading meat processor Nolan Meats, to acquire Griffin's, a supplier of meat to the food-service industry in Queensland and NSW. Holmes á Court said the move would ensure the company had total quality control of its beef. Polkinghorne says the company is on the edge of "something that's spectacularly different". "The real aim is to lift every piece of beef and make it as good as it can be. We can make beef an exciting product that's far ahead of any other product out there."

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When town is 660km away ...

“See you in town,” said Brunette Downs station manager Henry Burke as we left the property on separate aircraft. “Town” is Mount Isa, 660km away in western Queensland. The nearest town is actually Tennant Creek, some 350km to the south-west, but Mount Isa is the station's main service town. At 1.2 million hectares, Brunette is the biggest single pastoral lease in the Northern Territory.

But I can't even begin to picture what this means until I fly to wards the Barkly Tableland … and fly, and fly. It just goes on forever. There are places on the property where you can do a 360-degree turn and not see a single tree. The landscape is mostly open downs with small areas of timbered country, but such a description downplays its incredible beauty. A magical inland lakes system completes the picture. While one can scarcely imagine how challenging life here must have been in the days before air travel, electricity and the Internet, many have been captivated by these wide open spaces.

Together with Tom Macansh, Harry Redford, otherwise known as the infamous Captain Starlight, drove the first herd of 3000 cattle from Boulia in Queensland to Brunette Downs in 1883. Redford stayed on as manager. Macansh, Captain Charles Smith and John McDonald took up the Corella Station leases which are now part of Brunette Downs. In 1904, JC White (who had held separate Brunette Downs leases since 1878) and FC White became the owners. The Whites went into partnership with Alfred Cotton in 1912 and together they invested heavily in improvements, upgrading the Shorthorn herd.

The Shorthorns provided an excellent base for the Santa Gertrudis blood when King Ranch later took over the property. The Whites bought Cotton out in 1928, built the present homestead and held the first Territory stud bull sale in 1953. Bulls were flown in from NSW and although it was a social success, it was a financial disaster. In 1958, the Whites sold Brunette to the United States-based King Ranch which, despite intense opposition, introduced Santa Gertrudis cattle. The herd still forms the basis of a formidable stud and commercial herd.

The Australian Agricultural Company bought Brunette in 1979 and runs 50,000 head of commercial cattle and a 10,000 head bull-breeding herd. Around 50 people live on the property, 35 employees and the rest family. A governess is employed to help the children with School of Distance Education. In talking to the station manager's wife, Bernadette, I discovered we had gone to school at the same time a few suburbs away from each other in Townsville, North Queensland. To think how life takes people in different directions.

© Christine Salins

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