Bradshaw Station, most commonly known as Bradshaw's Run, was 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 operated 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 situated about east of Kununurra and south west of

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

. The leases to lands along the Victoria River were acquired by Joseph Bradshaw in 1894; the property occupied an area of . It is bounded by the Victoria River to the south,

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large body of water off the coast of the Northern Territory and Western Australia and part of the Timor Sea. It was named after Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and King of Naples (1806–1808) and then Spain (18 ...

to the west and the Fitzmaurice River to the north. A second lease adjacent to the station of was granted to Frederick Bradshaw, Joseph's brother, in 1898. Frederick joined his brother in 1898 to stock the property with sheep and both leases, which shared a boundary, were being run as one entity. By 1903 the homestead had been built using

Cypress-pine Cypress-pine is the common name used for three closely related genera of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae: *'' Callitris'' (Australia) *'' Actinostrobus'' (Australia) *''Widdringtonia ''Widdringtonia'' is a genus of coniferous trees i ...

and a herd of 40,000 cattle were supported on the property. Ivan Egoriffe, a Russian, was appointed as station manager at about the same time. Known as Ivan the Terrible he treated Aboriginal workers cruelly and many left the property. Eventually a few returned and tried to assassinate Egoriffe, but instead killed another man. Egoriffe had the man accused of the killing hung outside the homestead. Both Frederick Bradshaw and Egoriffe were murdered by Aborigines near Port Keats in 1905 when two men boarded their ship and killed them along with five of their companions in a revenge attack. The bodies of the men were buried on the run atop an

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

known as ''The Tombs''. Joseph Bradshaw spent his last years on the property, which entered a period of decline and was deserted by his backers. He hired another manager, named Byres, who replaced the old homestead, which had become riddled with

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

s. The property was acquired by Patrick Quilty, the son of Tom Quilty, in 1937. Quilty Snr. owned Glenore Station and Euroka Springs Station, both of which were passed onto his sons. Prior to his death in 1938 Patrick Quilty and his brother Tom acquired Bradshaw, Coolibah and Bedford Downs Station. Much of the property was acquired by the Department of Defence in 1995 to form the Bradshaw Field Training Area used by the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

and the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

. The training area occupies an area of .

References

External links

*
Search for Bradshaw's packhorse cutting by the HSNT
{{coord, 15.34760, S, 130.27607, E, type:landmark_region:AU, name=Bradshaw Station, display=title Stations in the Northern Territory 1894 establishments in Australia

See also

References

External links