Coorabulka Station, most commonly known as Coorabulka, 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.

Description

Coorabulka is located about south east of Boulia 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 ...

Central West Queensland Central West Queensland (abbreviated CWQ) is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers 396,650.2 km2. The region lies to the north of South West Queensland and south of the Gulf Country. It has a population of appr ...

. It is located in the

Channel Country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous Braided river, intertwined rivulets that cro ...

between the Diamantina and

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 ...

s. The property occupies an area of and is capable of carrying approximately 8,000 head of cattle. It is used as a grower property for weaners as part of the

North Australian Pastoral Company The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO) is a large, privately owned, Australian cattle company which operates 14 cattle stations (as well as the Wainui farm and feedlot) covering over 60,000 km2, managing around 200,000 cattle, throu ...

. It is mostly composed of open downs vegetated with Mitchell and Flinders Grasses with about a quarter of the property made up of

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

s. The station is bordered by another NAPCo. property, Marion Downs, to the west and Monkira to the south.

History

The station was established on Rakkaia tribal lands prior to 1882 and was owned by a Mr Ferguson in 1883 who was fattening cattle on the land at the time. The following year the property was owned by Ferguson, Woods and Co. and sent a mob of 1,700 head of cattle south to market after a good season. By 1890 the owners were Wellington, Woods and Ferguson. The property was placed on the market in 1900. At this time it had an area of and was carrying 2,552 head of cattle and 144 horses. The property was later withdrawn from sale. The first signs of

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s having reached the station were found in early 1900. Messrs Collins, White and Co. bought the station later in 1900. The new owners sank the first bore at the property in 1901 which was sunk to a depth of and recorded a flow of over a million gallons. In 1904 the station was "nearly washed away" by heavy flooding that occurred following unusually heavy rains. The station recorded of rain over the course of a week. The Diamantina River and Farrar Creek were both in "big flood". Later the same year the station manager, Mr. Nicholls, had contractors sink the station's sixth bore and struck a "sensational flow" of

artesian water An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of impermeable roc ...

, that rose over the casing and was producing an estimated three million gallons daily. Sold for £24,000 in 1933, the property had been initially put up for auction with Chatsworth and Noranside stations but no bids were received. John Collins and sons then placed a separate bid for Coorabulka alone; the 2,500 head of cattle and 100 horses were included as part of the sale. The Collins family also partly owned

Glenormiston Station Glenormiston Station, commonly known as Glenormiston, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Queensland, Australia. Description Glenormiston is located about west of Boulia and north of Birdsville in Central West Queensla ...

. The station was sold in 1939 by John Collins and sons to the Monkir Pastoral Company. At the time the property was in size and was made up of three leases (Coorabulka, Breadalbane and Mount Tarley) stocked with 6,700 head of

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 ...

cattle and 166 horses. Both Monkira and Coorabulka were acquired by the

the same year as part of their plan to breed cattle at Alexandria Station 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 ...

and then fatten and sell from the

. A

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

plague caused considerable damage at Coorabulka and the surrounding areas in 1940. The station manager estimated that of grazing lands was ruined by the plague with grass roots being destroyed and young trees being debarked. Reports came from travellers seeing mobs of thousands of rats along the roads. The Green family, who were living at Coorabulka, had to be rescued from the property in 1949 when it was severely flooded. The family were menaced by floodwaters in the

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 ...

for 36 hours before being reached by two rescue parties, one on horseback and the second on an improvised raft built from a

water trough A water trough (British English, British terminology), or track pan (American English, American terminology), is a device to enable a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply while in motion. It consists of a long trough filled with water, ...

and petrol drums. The rescue was prompted when the Greens made a fading telephone call saying "they were up to their armpits in water and trying to reach the roof". In an effort to conserve water being wasted from the

Great Artesian Basin The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) of Australia is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, extending over . Measured water temperatures range from . The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of inland Australia. ...

ten bores were capped at Coorabulka in 2007. The station manager of the time, Alistair Malone, commented that 1.5 million had been spent capping bores and installing new pipework and storage tanks. John Powell was appointed station manager in 2009 and runs the station along with wife Tracey and eight other employees. The Powells came from neighbouring Marion Downs where they had managed the Herbert Downs outstation.

References

{{Coord, 23.73106, S, 140.30584, E, type:landmark_region:AU-WA, display=title Stations in Queensland Central West Queensland

Description

History

See also

References