DomaCom’s chief executive Arthur Naoumidis said it was pleasing that “the government had heeded the outpouring of public sentiment” on the proposed $370 million sale, and had reached a preliminary finding to reject the bid by Dakang Australia Holdings.

Mr Morrison had already rejected an earlier bid by a related Chinese company, the Pengxin Group.

DomaCom launched book-build late last year to keep Kidman station in Australian hands, and in about three months 5,000 retail investors had pledged more $70 million.

“What the DomaCom campaign clearly demonstrated is that there is genuine public interest in keeping the iconic Kidman pastoral station in Australian hands, and that ‘mum and dad’ investors want to have a stake in this country’s agricultural heritage,” Mr Naoumidis said.

“Opinion polls have continually shown that ordinary Australians are deeply concerned about retaining our agricultural land, as well as the businesses that flow from them, and what our crowdfunding proposal did was give them the opportunity to give expression to that concern,” he said.

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