Fossil Downs Station
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Fossil Downs Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about north east of Fitzroy Crossing in the
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
region of
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
.


History

The first Europeans to visit the area were part of Alexander Forrest's party who passed through in 1879, followed by Charles Hall in 1885. Hall later struck gold at Halls Creek. The station was established the following year when
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...
arrived from the eastern states to stock the lease. The lease had been issued in 1883 to Dan MacDonald for the MacDonald family, who were living in Cliffords Creek, New South Wales at the time. He applied for an area of at the junction of the
Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
and Fitzroy Rivers. The MacDonalds, together with the McKenzie family from the junction near Tuena, who were close friends and related through marriage to the MacDonalds, formed a partnership to stock and equip the station in Western Australia. The McKenzies paid the £25 for the first year's rent and the families departed their New South Wales properties in March 1883. Donald MacDonald died early on the journey after being thrown from a horse, leaving two of his sons, Charles and William, to drive the stock to the new property. They left with 700 head of cattle and 60 horses, encountering
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, ...
conditions as they trekked through
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 ...
. Arriving at the property in June 1886 with 327 cattle and 13 horses, the brothers reunited with Dan and set up camp. This is thought to be the longest overland cattle drove in Australia's history. The gold rush at Halls Creek provided a nearby market for beef so the MacDonald brothers continued to run the property while the McKenzies financed the operating costs. In , the McKenzies sold their stake to the MacDonalds. Charles MacDonald died in 1903 and William in 1910, leaving the property to Dan MacDonald. The station prospered and MacDonald expanded by taking over the leases of surrounding properties and also began to strengthen his stock by infusing Red Poll cattle into the Shorthorn herd. The station was exporting some 1,500 head annually to
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
via
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
by 1915. In the early 1920s, despite the drought of 1924 and problems with cattle ticks, pastoralists in the area continued to prosper with the opening of an abattoir in Wyndham and the establishment of a
stock route A stock route, also known as travelling stock route (TSR), is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another in Australia. The stock routes across the country are colloquial ...
from Wyndham to the central Kimberley. Cattle king Sidney Kidman bought a half share in Fossil Downs in the 1920s for £75,000, which Dan MacDonald bought back in 1928 with the help of his brother Duncan, making him sole owner of the property again. Dan MacDonald's son William bought into the property in 1931 and when his father died in 1939, William assumed control of Fossil Downs. A trained architect, William demolished the old wood and iron homestead that had suffered
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 ...
damage and designed a new homestead to be constructed some away from the old one, for his new bride Maxine. By the early 1950s the station's size was estimated at and had over 20,000 branded cattle with 20
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
staff and 60 Aboriginal employees. In 1952(?) at Fossil Downs Homestead, Preston Walker of United Aborigines Mission Fitzroy Crossing married the head stockman and his bride, a nursing sister from Darwin. A large proportion of the West Kimberley was afflicted by
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, ...
in 1952 and 1953, including Fossil Downs. Virtually all feed was lost and even many native trees started dying as a result of intense heat and lack of water. The number of cattle in the area was reduced by half. This was the first drought suffered by pastoralists in 70 years, with many hurriedly sinking bores and buying feed to keep their stock alive. Other nearby properties that were affected were Noonkanbah, Liveringa, Quandan, Gogo, Glenroy, Cherrabun, Luiluigui, Christmas Creek and Bohemia Downs Station. The remote Muludja community is located on the station from the homestead, but on the other side of the river. The community was originally situated nearer the homestead but was moved in the 1990s and has a population of approximately 100 people, all of whom are of Aboriginal descent. The station's name is derived from fossilised animals and plants that are found in the many
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
outcrops, the Gogo Formation, in the area. While many stations in the Kimberley have experienced a decline in native pastures, mostly from
overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...
, Fossil Downs has bucked the trend thanks to years of collecting seed by hand from good pastures and spreading them over the rest of the property as well as
rotational grazing In agriculture, rotational grazing, as opposed to continuous grazing, describes many systems of pasturing, whereby livestock are moved to portions of the pasture, called paddocks, while the other portions rest. Each paddock must provide all the ...
. The return of mulla mulla in feed, with its high
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
content is good for cattle and also good for the environment with its ability to stabilize soil. The lessee in 2012 was WNM MacDonald Pty Ltd; Fossil Downs is operating under the Crown Lease number CL126-1989 and has the Land Act number LA3114/1248. In 2015 Gina Rinehart acquired Fossil Downs after it was placed on the market for the first time in 133 years. The property was stocked with 15,000 head of cattle and the sale price was not disclosed, but estimated to be between A$25 and 30 million.


See also

*
List of ranches and stations This is a list of ranches and sheep and cattle stations, organized by continent. Most of these are notable either for the large geographic area which they cover, or for their historical or cultural importance. Africa * Obudu Cattle Ranch * S ...
* List of pastoral leases in Western Australia


References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Homesteads in Western Australia Stations in the Kimberley (Western Australia) State Register of Heritage Places in the Shire of Derby-West Kimberley 1886 establishments in Australia