Maroonah Station, often referred to as Maroonah, is a pastoral lease that operates 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 ...

. It is located about east of Coral Bay and south of Onslow in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

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 ...

. Maroonah occupies an area of and shares boundaries with Towera, Lyndon, Mangaroon, Ullawarra, Edmund and

Glenflorrie Glenflorrie Station, also known as Glen Florrie Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. It is located about south of Pannawonica, Western Australia, Pannawonica and west of Paraburdoo, Western Australia, Paraburdoo in ...

Stations as well as the Barlee Range Wildlife Sanctuary. The

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of the area are the

Tharrkari The Tharrkari, also referred to as the Targari, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Language The Tharrkari spoke one of four dialects of Mantharta language, Mantharta, the other members of the dialec ...

, who currently lease and manage neighbouring Ullawarra station. Maroonah was established in 1893 by J. H. Mansfield and began trading in wool the same year. Mansfield had previously managed Karratha and Middalya Stations before acquiring Maroonah. Following the death of Mansfield in 1907 the property was being run his wife, Annie Mansfield, and the manager of the property John Griffin. The station was flooded in 1909 following severe weather that washed away miles of fencing. Later the same year

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 ...

produced a clip of over 150 bales of wool from the flock of 10,000 sheep. Annie Mansfield died in 1911 and the partnership of Mansfield and Griffin was dissolved in 1912, with Maroonah being put up for auction later the same year. At the time it occupied an area of subdivided into nine paddocks with of fencing. It was watered by nine wells and stocked with 10,200 sheep and 70 horses. The purchaser was W. S. Finey, who hired G. F. Egan to be the station's manager. When Finey arrived he found the property in the grip of a

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, ...

and plagued by

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

s. The stock was mustered and it was found that only 2,000 sheep were present. Frank Craig, the owner of Portree and Yalbalgo Stations, acquired Maroonah in October 1913. The Craig family remained associated with the property, with Gordon Craig dying in 1951. In 2009 the

of the area, the Thudgari people, were awarded native title of some in the area, including Maroonah,

and Mangaroon Stations. The land use agreement allows the Thudgari access to their traditional lands to hunt, gather and camp. Maroonah, Mangaroon and Diamond Downs were on the market in 2018; the properties had a combined area of and were carrying about 5,000 head of

droughtmaster The Droughtmaster is an Australian breed of beef cattle. It was developed from about 1915 in North Queensland by crossing zebuine cattle with cattle of British origin, principally the Beef Shorthorn. It was the first Australian taurindicine hy ...

cattle. The properties were listed at 7 million.

References

{{Stations of the Pilbara Western Australia Stations in the Pilbara 1893 establishments in Australia

See also

References