Erldunda 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 statio ...

south of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

of Australia.

History

The property was established in the 1870s by Richard Warburton who stocked it in 1884, and the property remained with the Warburton family until the 1920s, when it was bought by the Stanes family.

Location and description

Erldunda occupiea an area of that carried a herd of 6,500 head of

Santa Gertrudis cattle The Santa Gertrudis is an American 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 recognition in 1940. It h ...

in 2010. The station shares boundaries with other pastoral leases, such as Lyndavale to the west,

Mount Ebenezer Mount Ebenezer Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about north east of Yulara and south west of Alice Springs. The lease shares a boundary with other pastora ...

and Palmer Valley to the north, Idracowra to the east, and Umbeara and Victory Downs to the south. The ephemeral watercourses Karinga Creek and Kalamurta Creek both flow through the property. Lyndavale and Mount Ebenezer were owned by the Stanes family.

Native title ruling

In April 2023, a Federal Court ruling determined in favour of the native title application lodged by Anangu seven years earlier for around of pastoral lease land that includes Erldunda, Lyndavale, and

Curtin Springs Curtin Springs is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Occupying an area of , the working cattle station and roadhouse facility is located on the Lasseter Highway, ...

stations. This was the first recognition of commercial rights in Central Australia. The ruling, which was handed down by Justice Mordy Bromberg at a gathering in the remote community of Imanpa, granted

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

the right to hunt and perform

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular ...

on the land, and also to be consulted over its use. However neither the native title holders nor the pastoralists have rights over mineral exploration, and licences for

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water- soluble form.

mining are held over the lakes. Ross Stanes welcomed the determination, saying that his family had "had a long, long relationship with nangu and that both pastoralists and native title holders respected each others' rights.

References

External links

Erldunda Station Page on TripAdvisor.com
* Erldunda Wikivoyage page {{Coord, 25, 13, 20.5, S, 133, 11, 41, E, type:landmark_region:AU-NT, display=title Stations in the Northern Territory