The American King Ranch company had a huge influence on Australia, owning vast stations, and introducing Santa Gertrudis cattle and quarter horses.
Story Fiona Carruthers Photo Todd Tenney, via Karen Thrun’s Australian Legends
Geoff Wagstaff is tearing through Kimberley scrub in a western saddle on an American quarter horse. It’s the mid-1970s and the young stockman has recently arrived at Mount House station, then owned by the American Kleberg family from King Ranch, Texas.
The vast Mount House run of some 5,057sq km falls within the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (historically known as the King Leopold Ranges); a landscape defined by quartz sandstone ridges, narrow gorges and waterfalls in the wet season. “We must have looked pretty funny with our American gear,” chuckles Geoff, now based in south-eastern Queensland’s Maleny region.
“Many of the Australians who worked for the Klebergs bought a western saddle at some point. Everyone loved working for the Klebergs – they were great horse- and cattlemen. They always got out with us and did the hard work when they were in Australia, even though, let me tell you, the Kimberley country isn’t the smoothest.”
The Klebergs’ ability to deal with unfamiliar terrain at breakneck speed is an apt metaphor for their attitude to international expansion. By the 1980s, King Ranch held about 46,500sq km of land outside of Texas, of which some 32,000sq km was in Australia, their international jewel in the crown.
It was to be a relatively short, but important chapter for Australia. The Klebergs were virtually fully sold out from our shores by 1989, but King Ranch Australia imported the foundation stock that formed the basis of Australia’s Santa Gertrudis cattle and quarter horse breeding industries.
This story excerpt is from Issue #169
Outback Magazine: Oct/Nov 2026
