Carandotta Station, most commonly referred to as Carandotta but often spelled as Carrandotta, 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 ...

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 ...

, Australia. It is within the localities of Carrandotta and Piturie in the

Shire of Boulia The Shire of Boulia is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Central West Queensland, bordering the Northern Territory. Its administrative centre is in the town of Boulia, Queensland, Boulia.It covers an area of , and has exi ...

Geography

It is situated about west of

Dajarra Dajarra is a rural town and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Dajarra had a population of 186 people. Geography Dajarra is in North West Queensland near th ...

and north of

Birdsville Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. The locality is on the Queensland border with both the Northern Territory and South Australia. The town is situated north of the South Australian bord ...

. The property has frontage onto the

Georgina River The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Georg ...

including a permanent water-hole over long. The land is a mix of floodplain and high pebbly downs that is well covered in Mitchell and

Flinders Grass ''Iseilema'', commonly known in Australia as Flinders grass, is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants ...

es and lightly timbered with bloodwood, gidyea and

coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, ...

trees.

History

'' Waluwarra'' (also known as ''Warluwarra'', ''Walugara'', and ''Walukara'') is an Australian Aboriginal language of

Western Queensland Western Queensland encompasses the three western regions in the Australian state of Queensland: * North West Queensland, often known as Gulf Country; * Central West Queensland; and * South West Queensland. History Karuwali (also known as ...

. Its traditional language region is the local government area of

, including Walgra Station and Wolga, from Roxborough Downs north to Carandotta Station and

Urandangi Urandangi (formerly also spelled Urandangie) is an outback town in the locality of Piturie in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. Geography The town is located on the banks of the Georgina River in Central West Queensland, north ...

on the

, on Moonah Creek to Rochedale, south-east of Pituri Creek. The property was established by a

syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndic ...

of pastoralists headed by

Oscar De Satge Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer J ...

who took up three million acres along the Georgina River in 1884. The syndicate had believed that a railway would be built through the area from

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 ...

to Normanton. By 1891 the railway had not eventuated but the property was stocked with 100,000 sheep, 800 horses and 20,000 head of cattle. Unfortunately no dams were built and in the

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, ...

of 1892 some 90,000 sheep and 15,000 head of cattle perished.

Sidney Kidman Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime. Early life Sidne ...

acquired Carandotta in 1903 from Pitt, Son and Badgery, at the time the property was estimated as being in area for £65,000 on a walk-in walk-out basis. Kidman took his time to settle and paid the property off by 1906. By 1907 Kidman surrendered the lease to

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

, then released of the leasehold. Sidney Kidman sold Carandotta in 1910 to Messrs Cumming and Capper. At this time it occupied an area of and was divided into 20 sheep paddocks, it also had a good wool scouring plant, stone homestead and a carrying capacity estimated at 200,000 sheep. The property was sold again in 1932 by the

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

s of the late Mr. T. A. Stirton to Mr. H. C. Taylor on behalf of the Carandotta Pastoral Company. The property was in size and was stocked with 50,000 sheep, 400 cattle and 200 horses. Carandotta was divided into 51 paddocks and watered by 43 wells. In 1938 the now station was sold once more for £50,000. It was stocked with 10,000 sheep and was sold to the Western Pastoral company. In the early 1950s the station was plagued by

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

es with 800 being killed from 1952 to 1953. Later the lease was taken up as part of

Headingly Station Headingly Station often just referred to as Headingly is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. It is located about south of Camooweal and west of Dajarra in Queensland. The property occupies an area of of Queensland's Gulf cou ...

which 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 40,000

Santa Gertrudis cattle The Santa Gertrudis is an American list of cattle breeds, breed of beef cattle. It is a taurine-indicine hybrid breed, descended from both zebu and European cattle. It was bred in the early twentieth century in Texas, and received official recog ...

. 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 ...

. Headingly Station consists of three leases that operate as one entity, the leases being Headingly, Wolgra and Carandotta.

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations in Queensland North West Queensland 1884 establishments in Australia

Geography

History

See also

References