Bowes Station is a pastoral lease and

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

located in the

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is approximately to the south-east of Kalbarri and to the west of Mullewa. The station was established in 1850 by brothers

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and

Lockier Burges :''Two people named Lockier Clere Burges have been prominent in Western Australia. For the Lockier Clere Burges born in 1841, see Lockier Burges (1841-1929)'' Lockier Clere Burges (c. 1814–31 July 1886) was an early settler in colonial W ...

, when they applied for land in the newly discovered Champion Bay district. William Burges moved from his original property, ''Tipperary'' (near

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

), and by 1857 was grazing sheep on 93,000 acres. He subsequently bought

ram Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

s descended from the royal flock of George II, settling them first at Bowes and later taking them to

Yuin Station Yuin Station is a pastoral lease and sheep station located in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Situated approximately to the north-west of Yalgoo and northeast of Mullewa, the property occupies an area of and has a maximum carryin ...

. In 1859,

Thomas Burges Thomas Burges (July 1830 – 7 August 1893) was an Australian pastoralist and politician who was a member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia on three occasions – from 1874 to 1878, from 1885 to 1887, and from 1890 until his death ...

, William's nephew, took over Bowes Station. Thomas' son William Burges was born on the station in December 1865 and following his schooling returned to the property to manage Bowes. He retired in about 1912 and died in 1942. In 1869, 15-year-old

Edward Wittenoom Sir Edward Horne Wittenoom Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG (12 February 1854 – 5 March 1936) was an Australian politician who served intermittently in the Western Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Cou ...

worked as a jackaroo at Bowes, and was joined by his brother Frank in 1874. The Wittenooms went on to acquire over 2 million acres in crown leases including

Boolardy Boolardy Station is a remote former sheep and cattle station in the Mid West (Murchison) region of Western Australia, about north-north-east of Pindar and west-south-west of Meekatharra. It is within the Shire of Murchison and situated on ...

, Murgoo, Nookawarra and Mileura Stations. Following good conditions in 1869, rams cut out at an average of 18½lb. of wool each on Bowes. Feed was heavy on the ground that same year causing

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s to breed up in large numbers and act as a pest to the

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...

s. Mr J. A. Wellington managed the station from the 1870s for Burges and remained in the area until his death in 1904. Burges and his wife left for a 15-month holiday to Europe and the United States, returning to the property in August 1908. In 1874 the Wittenooms took 15,000 sheep from Bowes to establish Yuin Station. A shearer, William John Pearce, went missing in 1896 after going for a walk in the bush. Mr W. Burges informed the police and then the constable, an

Aboriginal tracker Aboriginal trackers were enlisted by Europeans in the years following History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation of Australia, to assist them in exploring the Australian landscape. The excellent tracking skills of these Aboriginal ...

and several other shearers formed a search party to find him. After three days no trace of Pearce was found. Large

bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

swept across the area in 1900 with many paddocks at Bowes being lost to the flames. In 1902 the Land Board resumed a total of , split into at least 6 blocks, from the station area for other selectors. Burges applied for Block 1 but was unsuccessful and the block was given to E. Sims who had an adjoining selection. S. L. Burges sold 7,000 sheep from Bowes in 1914 following a very dry season in the district.

References

{{Stations of the Mid West Western Australia Homesteads in Western Australia Stations in the Mid West (Western Australia)

State Register of Heritage Places The State Register of Heritage Places is the heritage register of historic sites in Western Australia deemed significant at the state level by the Heritage Council of Western Australia. History In the 1970s, following its establishment of the N ...

1850 establishments in Australia

See also

References