Argadargada Station 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 ...
of
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 ...
.
Location
It is situated about south of
Alpurrurulam and north east 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 ...
. The property shares a boundary with Annitowa and Ooratippra to the west,
Lucy Creek and
Manners Creek Station to the south,
Lake Nash and
Georgina Downs to the east and the Atnetye Aboriginal Land Trust to the south.
The property is bisected by the
Sandover Highway.
[
]
Description
The property has a mix of terrain including open flat plains of Mitchell grass, buffel and Flinders grass over massive portions, and a mix of slightly undulating country with other sections of break-away country to the southern parts of the leasehold. Vegetation found within the boundaries includes mulga, bloodwood, gidyea, coolabah, ghost gum with an area of soft spinifex. The Sandover River
The Sandover River is an ephemeral river in the Northern Territory of Australia located in northeast Central Australia. It is the only major tributary of the Georgina River that does not rise in western Queensland. Instead it flows from the e ...
passes through the property, providing flood-out country. In 2010 Argadargada was stocked with around 6,000 head cattle, mostly Charbray, Charolais and Bos Indicus breeds.
History
The traditional owners
Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...
of the area are the Yaroinga people, who inhabited around of country straddling both the Northern Territory and Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, including Argadargada toward the western edge of their range.
Bores were sunk in the area in 1918 a few miles west of the Argadargada waterhole.
The station was established in 1951 by Damian Miller and Milton Willick, who had a difficult time with the property, losing 1,300 head of cattle in 1953–54 to gidgee poisoning. In 1954 Calder joined the partnership and became the manager before they sold the station in 1964. The property occupied an area of when it was first taken up, and construction of the homestead began in or after 1952. Milton and Phyllis Willick lived in tents until all materials arrived.
The lessee of the station in 1998 was Dick Rogers when the property was in size and the land resources were mapped and surveyed with 35 land units identified and described.
The Broad family bought the property in 2003 for 3 million.[
The Rushton family moved to Argadargada in 2017 to manage the property for the Georgina Pastoral Company.]
See also
*List of ranches and stations
This is a list of ranches and sheep and cattle stations, organized by continent. Most of these are notable either for the large geographic area which they cover, or for their historical or cultural importance.
Africa
* Obudu Cattle Ranch
* S ...
References
{{Reflist
Stations in the Northern Territory