Headingly Station often just referred to as Headingly 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 south of

Camooweal Camooweal is an outback town and locality in the City of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. The locality is on the Queensland border with the Northern Territory. In the , the locality of Camooweal had a population of 236 people. Geography The ...

and 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 ...

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 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 ...

. The station is composed of

black soil Chernozem ( ),; also called black soil, regur soil or black cotton soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compounds. Chernozem is very fertile soil and can ...

downs country with some timbered area scattered throughout along 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 ...

, ample feed is available to the stock in the form of 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. It consists of three leases that operate as one entity, the leases being Headingly, Wolgra and Carandotta.

History

In 1881 the property was owned by Messrs Milsom and de Stage when it took delivery of 1,800 Enniskillen cattle. In 1904, 1,400 head of cattle were removed from the station to restock

Durham Downs Station Durham Downs Station, most commonly known as Durham Downs, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Durham, Queensland, Durham, Shire of Bulloo in South West Queensland, Australia. The property is situated in a remote and arid l ...

further south 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 ...

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 the property in 1905. The station had been abandoned some time prior to 1908 but was taken up again in that year by Messrs Philip, Leahy and Co. who planned to stock the property with 5,000 cattle. Robert Philip sold the station in 1911, at this point the station had an area of and was stocked with 3,000 cattle and 120 horses. The purchasers were Messrs Barton and Gilders. The property was described as excellent

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

country and ''would be under sheep when the railway goes there''. In 1953 the property was owned by the Peel River Land and mineral Company which took 200 bulls and transferred them by

road train A road train, also known as a land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a semi-trailer used to move road freight more efficiently than single-trailer semi-trailers. It consists of one semi-trailer or more connected together with or wit ...

to Auvergne Station 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 ...

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations in Queensland North West Queensland

History

See also

References