About

Family of six, including two young girls, posing together outdoors in a field with tall grass under a cloudy sky.

Andrew and Claire Mactaggart, and their family, continue a proud legacy of beef production in central Queensland, one that now spans five generations.

Our focus is on strengthening the ecological, social and financial foundations of our business, to produce nutrient-dense, grass-fed beef that reflects the health of the land it comes from.

We breed and trade cattle across the Duaringa and Moura districts, drawing on technology, science and innovation to lift both productivity and environmental outcomes.

History

Beef production at Balcomba began with Frank and Frances Beardmore, whose initials remain the present cattle brand 2FB. Our story begins in 1918, when Andrew's great-grandfather, James Lockie Wilson, purchased Balcomba, north of Duaringa, in partnership with P. J. C. McDouall. At around 209 square miles (541 km²) on the Mackenzie River, Balcomba operated as a satellite Hereford breeding block, complementing Calliope Station near Gladstone. By the late 1930s, Balcomba had one of the biggest purebred Hereford herds in Queensland, consisting of 5,000 breeders.

Today, Andrew manages the 18,200-hectare property as a fifth-generation grazier, alongside Angle Creek and the Moura properties Wirranda and Yanina. Wirranda, near Moura is one of the earliest cell grazing operations in Australia that began in the 1990s.

A black-and-white photo of a farm scene with multiple fenced-in areas, trees, and horses, with a person in a cart on a grassy hill in the foreground and a handwritten note at the bottom reading 'Cattle yards; Balcombe St Station'.