Canobie Station, often just referred to as Canobie, is a pastoral lease 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 ...

. It is located about north of

Cloncurry Cloncurry is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It is informally known by local people as The Curry. Cloncurry is the administrative centre of the Shire of Cloncurry. Cloncurry is known as the ''Friendl ...

and south west of

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

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 ...

. The property occupies an area of of Queensland's

Gulf Country The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also ca ...

and is able to carry a herd of approximately 35,000 gulf-composite cattle. It is currently owned by the

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo; ) is a public-listed Australian company that, as of 2018, owns and operates feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's land ...

. The area is made up of black soil plains like much of the Gulf Country; the Georgina basement rocks are overlaid with sediments of the Carpentaria basin. The

Cloncurry River The Cloncurry River is situated in the Gulf Country of north west Queensland, Australia. Geography The headwaters of the river rise west of Mount Boorama near Mount Tracey in the Selwyn Range (Australia), Selwyn Range and initially flows nort ...

and many of its smaller tributaries are situated within the boundaries of the property and make excellent watering points for the stock. The station takes its name from a corruption of 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 ...

' name of the locale: ''Conobie''. The station was first established in 1864 when Edward Palmer, originally from

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

, stocked the property with cattle and sheep. The first

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

was taken off Canobie in 1865 to Burketown. Palmer's partner, Mr Shrewing, died of gulf fever in the first year and the station was

drought A drought is a period of 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, ...

stricken for the first few years then flooded in 1869–1870. Palmer was of the view that British colonisers like him had "a peculiar mission to supplant" the

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and to "occupy the country that was wholly theirs". Palmer confirmed that Indigenous people were commonly shot and were "a hard-used race", but he thought that "the troublesome question" of finding a "solution" for the "blacks" was that "we have to occupy the country and no two races can inhabit the same country but the weaker must go to the wall". In the 1880s, a new partner, Mr Stephenson, bought into Canobie with Palmer. In 1895, the head station

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

was burnt to the ground with only a few books being saved. The whole area was severely flooded in 1891 with Palmer being trapped in Normanton and unable to return to the property. Surrounding properties recorded water levels as rising over , causing widespread destruction and the loss of hundreds of stock. The property was sold in 1908 to A.J. Cotton along with all of its stock: 23,000 head of cattle and 451 horses. In 1912, Canobie West Station, presumably resumed from Canobie, having a total area of , was sold with five other properties to the New Zealand and Australian Land Co. Ltd. A

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

plane on a mail run was destroyed by fire at Canobie in 1948. The plane, a Dragon Rapide, landed at the property on schedule but when it was restarted for take-off an engine burst into flames, which soon engulfed the entire aircraft. In the 1970s, the

shorthorn The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late eighteenth century. The breed was developed as dual-purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however, certain blood lines within the breed always em ...

herd was replaced with the better suited

Brahman cattle In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' (; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Brahman'') connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality of the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, ...

, which thrived in the tropical conditions. AACo acquired Canobie in 1985 along with neighbouring Alcalá station and the two were combined, forming a single operation. In 1990, Lyrian Downs, on the eastern boundary, was added to the conglomerate. Both Canobie and nearby Wondoola Station are being explored for

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

deposits by a joint partnership between Anglo American and Falcon minerals. The development is known as the Saxby project and further drilling was to occur in 2009.

References

{{Coord, 19.4763, S, 140.93201, E, type:landmark_region:AU-WA, display=title Stations in Queensland North West Queensland 1864 establishments in Australia

See also

References