Nambi is a pastoral lease and

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 ...

located about north east of Leonora and south east of

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

in the Goldfields 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 ...

. The station was established in 1899. The property was owned by the Leonora Pastoral company in 1925, who ran

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 ...

on the leasehold. The company sold 129 mixed cattle at

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sales in December 1929, another 28 in January 1930, and another 30 in March 1930. Plans were underfoot to change to

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 ...

as early as 1925 when Geo Sexton, one of

company director A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations ...

s, arrived at the station to commence fencing in preparation for the arrival of sheep at the station. The station had also recently purchased eight trucks. By 1926 Nambi sold some of their first clip with 55

wool bale A wool bale is a standard sized and weighted pack of classed wool compressed by the mechanical means of a wool press. This is the regulation required method of packaging for wool, to keep it uncontaminated and readily identifiable. A "bale of wool" ...

s sold at the Perth sales in October 1926. and another 46 bales in 1928. Approximately 10,000 sheep were shorn at Nambi in 1928, with a total clip of 252 bales. The

shearing shed Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities. In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds a ...

had recently been fitted with six stands of Lister machinery, whereas

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 ...

had been all done by hand in the past. The Leonora Pastoral company put the property up for

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

in 1930, advertising the property as having an area of with tenure up until 1948. The station had of 5 or 6 wire sheep-proof fencing enclosing into 14 paddocks, and an additional of cattle fencing also in place. Water was available from 23 wells complete with windmills for a flock of approximately 11,000 sheep, of which about 6,000 were breeding ewes, 70 cattle and 100 horses. The station was sold to the Murrum Pastoral Company and Mrs C. Fitzgerald in August 1930. They had bought the station for £18,600 with all plant but no sheep. At this time the station occupied an area of and had over of fencing in place. Having little surface water, the property also had 28 wells and in 1930 carried a flock of 9,500

. One of Nambi's neighbours is Clover Downs Station. William Fitzgerald, of the Murrum Pastoral Company, died in December 1933, leaving his wife and two sons. One son, Cyril Irwin Fitzgerald, is the manager at Nambi, while the other, Victor Fitzgerald, is the manager at Murrum Station. In 1937 the station bought an additional 70 Bungaree blood rams from the Hagley stud in Tammin, followed by another 25 in 1938. A station employee, William Paul, inadvertently shot himself with his own weapon outside the men's quarters in 1941. The bullet grazed his ribs and lodged in his left arm, but the wound was not serious. The station had a good year in 1948 when 17,715 sheep were shorn and 465 bales of wool were collected, an increase of 3,500 sheep on the previous year. Lambing was estimated at 81%. Two shearers, members of Len Mitchell's shearing team, became lost when out shooting following rain; this held up shearing in 1949. The two men, Don McDonald and Ronald Bacon went shooting and became lost in the bush where they spent two of the coldest and wettest nights of the year. Both men were found safe and well about from the homestead. Vehicles and trackers from the station covered over in the search for the men. The following year the station sold off 3,000 sheep to nearby Wilbah Station. Cyril Irwin Joseph Fitzgerald, who had owned and managed Nambi since 1933, died in January 1951, aged 41. He left his entire estate to his widow.

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currently owns Nambi, along with three other nearby properties:

Glenorn Glenorn is a pastoral lease that has operated as both a sheep and cattle station. It is located about south east of Leonora and north east of Kookynie in the Goldfields of Western Australia, The Laverton to Leonora railway passes throu ...

, Yundamindera and Minara Stations. In 2012 Glenorn and Nambi were running approximately 1,700 head of cattle. By 2016 all four stations were running a herd of cattle.

References

{{Stations of the Goldfields-Esperance Western Australia Homesteads in Western Australia Stations in Goldfields–Esperance 1899 establishments in Australia

See also

References