The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's land mass. As of July 2008 AACo had a staff of 500 and operated 24 cattle stations and two feedlots, consisting of over 565,000 beef cattle. Founding of the 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 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