Sidney Kidman

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Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 1857 - 2 September 1935) was a pastoralist in Australia. Starting from nothing, he built up a huge pastoral business, with over a hundred cattle stations with total area of more than 3% of Australia - allowing him to move his cattle from north to south along the great inland river systems and drought proofing his empire. The area he owned was greater than the area of the British Isles. His land stretched from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Flinders Ranges and to the Fitzroy River in Western Australia. He was also an entrepreneur with interests in many other rural industries such as transport.

Sidney left his home near Adelaide at age 13 with only 5 shillings and a one-eyed horse. He joined a drover, and learned quickly. He worked as a drover, stockhand and livestock trader. He made money trading whatever was needed, and supplying services (transport, goods, a butcher shop) to new mining towns springing up in outback New South Wales and South Australia (including Cobar, Kapunda, Burra and eventually Broken Hill. Eventually he and his brothers ended up working on the same station, then bought their own. The partnership with his brother Sackville lasted until his death in 1899.

Over time, benefitting from their experience and observation, he had built a vast network of connected stations stretching from both the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Fitzroy River down into South Australia near the Flinders Ranges and also across New South Wales. He could grow and fatten the cattle on the remote stations in the north, and bring them down the lines of stations to markets in the south, providing good feed and water on the way to sell them in top condition. S Kidman and Co is still the largest private landholder in Australia, although now on a much smaller scale.

In World War I he donated wool, meat, horses, ambulances and even fighter airplanes to the government. He also guaranteed the jobs of employees who went to fight in the war, and assisted the widows of those who didn't come back. He was knighted in 1921.

The Adelaide suburb of Kidman Park was named after him.