Narwietooma Station, most commonly known as Narwietooma, is a

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

that operates as a

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is on the traditional lands of the

Western Arrernte Arrernte or Aranda (; ), or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...

and

Anmatyerr The Anmatyerr (also spelt Anmatyerre, Anmatjera, Anmatjirra, Amatjere and other variations) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, who speak one of the Upper Arrernte languages. Language Anmatyerr is divided into Easte ...

people who are the recognised Native Title holders of large sections of land that make up the station. It is a part of the Local Government Area of the

MacDonnell Region The MacDonnell Regional Council is a local government area of the Northern Territory, Australia. The region covers an area of and had an estimated population of 6,863 people in June 2018. Geography MacDonnell Regional Council occupies the sou ...

Council.

Property

It is situated about north of

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle (district), Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide (municipality), Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort t ...

and west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, and is bordered by the

West MacDonnell National Park Tjoritja / West MacDonnell is a national park in the Northern Territory (Australia) due west of Alice Springs and 1234 km south of Darwin. It extends along the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs. The popular extended walk, the Larap ...

close to Ormiston Gorge. Narwietooma is surrounded by other leases including Glen Helen Station to the south west, Derwent Station to the west,

Napperby Station Napperby Station, also known as Napperby, is a pastoral lease used as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. History The station was established on Anmatyerre tribal land at the beginning of the 20th Century. The Chisholm f ...

to the north and

Amburla Amburla Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. The property is situated approximately north of Hermannsburg and west of Alice Springs. Amburla occupies an area of . The most pr ...

to the east, and the

to the south. The property occupies an area of and has a carrying capacity of approximately 17,000 head of cattle depending on the season. It is fenced into 80 separate paddocks and is watered by 60 bores and 35 dams.

History

Part of the area that Narwietooma Station covers was first spasmodically occupied by Archibald "Archie" Giles as a part of Redbank Station. The Narwietooma pastoral lease was first established in 1942 by a partnership between Edward Connellan, who was raised on ''Narwie Station'', NSW, and F. O'Keefe, who owned a property named ''Tooma''; the name of the lease was a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the names of the other two properties. Connellan was an experienced pilot, and later established

Connellan Airways Connellan Airways (later Connair) was an airline headquartered in Alice Springs, Australia. It operated scheduled flights as well other air transport services throughout the Northern Territory from 1939 to 1980. History The company was f ...

in 1943. He picked out the land for the station in 1938 when doing

aerial survey Aerial survey is a method of collecting geomatics or other imagery data using airplanes, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAVs, Balloon (aeronautics), balloons, or other aerial methods. Typical data collected includes aerial photography, Li ...

s to assess the viability of an air service. Following the death of his partners, Connellan acquired complete ownership of Narwietooma in 1946. He sank the first bore in 1947 and began grazing cattle in 1948. His family moved to the property in 1955 and Connellan supervised all station work. Records about Connellan's application for the lease (A650, 1944/1/551) and his period of time at the station (E740, P86) are held by the

National Archives of Australia The National Archives of Australia (NAA), formerly known as the Commonwealth Archives Office and Australian Archives, is an Australian Government agency that is the National archives, official repository for all federal government documents. It ...

. In 2022 to Hewitt Cattle Australia bought the property from Tim and Emily Edmunds, operating as Hale River Holdings, as a part of a Certified Organic beef enterprise alongside the adjoining Napperby, Glen Helen and Derwent stations; they had previously purchased the nearby

Ambalindum Ambalindum is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory. The property occupies an area of and in 2013 was stocked with 5,000 Santa Gertrudis-cross-cattle. The ephemeral Hale R ...

and Numery pastoral leases from the same owners. It is now part of one of the largest organic land parcels in the world.

Native Title

The Native Title of sections of this land was recognised in 2016 through native title consent determinations at special sittings of the Federal Court. The native title holders are Western Arrernte and Anmatyerr speakers and belong to the Imperlknge, Urlatherrke, Parerrule, Yaperlpe, Urlampe, Lwekerreye and Ilewerr landholding groups and people who have rights and interests in the area of land known as Kwerlerrethe. The Wala Aboriginal Corporation are the registered Native Title body corporate that holds their rights and interests.

References

{{Coord, 23.233, S, 132.619, E, type:landmark_region:AU-NT, display=title Stations in the Northern Territory 1942 establishments in Australia MacDonnell Region

Property

History

Native Title

See also

References