Boolathana Station is a
pastoral lease currently operating as a
cattle station that once operated as a
sheep station in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
.
Description
The property is situated approximately north of
Carnarvon and south of
Coral Bay in the
Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Ga ...
region. The property is bounded by
Quobba station to the west and the north. The homestead is situated on the banks of a large dam about
long and wide. The country is mostly of a coastal nature with alternating sand ridges and
salt bush flats. Several different native grasses, shrubs and the
wattle
Wattle or wattles may refer to:
Plants
*''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa
**''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia
**Black wattle, c ...
variety ''Wanu'' provide good feed for stock. The station was one of the first in the district to bore for
artesian water; one
bore
Bore or Bores often refer to:
*Boredom
* Drill
Relating to holes
* Boring (manufacturing), a machining process that enlarges a hole
** Bore (engine), the diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or a steam locomotive
** Bore (wind instruments), ...
provides of water per day.
History
The first Europeans to visit the area were an expedition led by
Charles Brockman and George Hamersley in 1876. Brockman later established Boolanthana after acquiring the lease for .
In 1915, the
drover Alf Cream took 2350 sheep from Boolathana and drove them overland for nine weeks to
Meeberrie, another station owned by Butcher. The journey should have taken five weeks but the country was waterlogged following twenty consecutive days of heavy rain. The
Wooramel River had risen and the drovers had to wait nine days to cross.
The property was sold in 1928 by James and Charles Butcher to Messrs Chenery and McIntyre for £130,000. By this stage Boolathana occupied an area of , was well watered by
bores that provided over of water per day, and carried a flock of over 40,000 sheep.
In 1949 the property was owned by Harry Butcher, who was no relation to the previous owners; he acquired the property in 1947,
about the same time that the area was struck by
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
for a three-year period until good rainfalls were recorded in the winter of 1951. The property was a
bird sanctuary by 1949 with large numbers of
cockatoos living around the homestead. The 1949 shearing season was reasonably good with 25,000 sheep shorn. The record over the previous 30 years had been 50,000 with an average of about 20,000 per year.
[
In 2012 the area was menaced by bushfires that burned an area of in total. Boolathana and other stations such as Jimba Jimba, ]Doorawarrah
Doorawarrah Station, commonly referred to as Doorawarrah, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia.
It is situated about east of Carnarvon and south of Coral Bay in the Gascoyne region. Doorawarrah is boun ...
and Meedo
Meedo Station, commonly referred to as Meedo, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia.
It is situated about east of Denham and south east of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne region. The homestead lies along the ...
all received bushfire advice warnings.
In 2015 the station owners had to renegotiate the lease agreement with the state government, including having the government excise sections of pastoral land along the world-heritage listed Ningaloo Coast from the property, for conservation and tourism ventures.
See also
* List of pastoral leases in Western Australia
Pastoral leases in Western Australia are increasingly known as "stations", and more particular – as either sheep stations or cattle stations. They are usually found in country that is designated as rangeland. In 2013 there were a total of 5 ...
References
{{Stations of the Gascoyne Western Australia
Pastoral leases in Western Australia
Stations (Australian agriculture)
Shire of Carnarvon