Isis Downs Station 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 currently 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 ...

but has previously operated as a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

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.

Location

The property is situated approximately south of

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay towar ...

and west of

Blackall Blackall is a rural town and locality in the Blackall-Tambo Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is the service centre for the Blackall-Tambo Region. The dominant industry in the area is grazing with over 70 homesteads in the locality (as ...

. The property is flanked by the

Barcoo River The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south-westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas ...

History

It was initially established by Charles Lumley-Hill, W. St John Holberton and W. B. Allen in 1867. They named it after the Isis River, a tributary of the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

, in England. The same group advertised the property for sale in 1872, when it was stocked with about 20,000 sheep. Isis Downs was sold in 1873 for £17,067 to Messrs

John Govett John Govett (1832 – 7 December 1920) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queenslan ...

and James Thomson, with eight blocks of unstocked country to the north of the property being sold to Mr. Stevenson for £3750. Govett and Thomson utilised Chinese

coolie Coolie (also spelled koelie, kouli, khuli, khulie, kuli, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically those of Indian people, Indian or Chinese descent. The word ''coolie'' was first used in the 16th cent ...

s, blackbirded

South Sea Islander South Sea Islanders, formerly referred to as Kanakas, are the Australian descendants of Pacific Islanders from more than 80 islandsincluding the Oceanian archipelagoes of the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Gilbert Islands ...

s and Aboriginal women and children as labour. Several of the Islanders died from

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

and another was shot after he stabbed the overseer at nearby Terrick Downs in the chest. By 1877, a town was established not far from the station by William and James Whitman to support the local pastoral industry. To begin with the town was known as Whittown or Whittington but by 1897 was named Isisford. In 1877 Isis Downs was acquired by William John Clarke; he owned it until 1883, but let it go. It then changed hands a number of times before Robert Selmon Whiting and William John Clarke's son, Sir Rupert Clarke who acquired it in 1910. The station encompassed an area of and had commanded a price of £200,000. In 1912 Isis was stocked with 200,000 sheep. A fire tore through the property shortly after

shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (depending upon dialect, a sheep may be sai ...

the same year, resulting in the destruction of the woolshed and 1,200 bales of wool. The construction of the station woolshed was completed in 1914. It was the biggest in Queensland and the first to have electric shearing stands. When built the station occupied an area of and was stocked with 320,000 sheep. The stone and rammed earth jackaroo quarters were bulldozed some time after staff numbers fell below 40 in the 1960s. In 1954 some 50,000 sheep were shorn at Isis Downs. The Consolidated Pastoral Company acquired Isis Downs in 1987, at which time the property occupied an area of after a series of land resumptions by the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

for an estimated 10 million. Consolidated placed Isis Downs on the market following a decision by

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

to focus on beef cattle and meat processing operations. At the time the was stocked with 80,000

merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

sheep and 10,000 mixed cattle, and was offered for an estimated 20 million. The sale was not successful and in 2004 the company decided to remove all sheep from the property and introduced 6,000 Charolais Brahman cross females with

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

bulls. The property has a carrying capacity of 24,000 head of cattle with an annual turn-off of around 10,000 cattle.

References

External links

{{commons category, Isis Downs Station
Isis Downs Station Photographs

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

Stations in Queensland Central West Queensland 1867 establishments in Australia

Location

History

See also

References

External links