Quinyambie or Quinyambie 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 ...

currently operating 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 ...

Description

It is located about north of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

and north east of

Blinman Blinman is a locality incorporating two towns in the Australian state of South Australia within the Flinders Ranges about north of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide. It includes the highest surveyed town in South Australia, wi ...

in the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. Once owned by

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 ...

, the property is the third largest station in South Australia. The unusual name is an aboriginal word for

excreta Excretion is elimination of metabolic waste, which is an essential process in all organisms. In vertebrates, this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys, and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specifi ...

History

The station was established prior to 1886, and was owned in that year by Mr H. T. Whitty who was running sheep on the property, later moving 6,070 sheep from the property in 1887. A

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

employed at Quinyambie committed suicide by hanging himself after only one week on the job in 1888. The surrounding areas were denuded of feed following a rabbit plague in 1895, Quinyambie was spared as it was protected to the west by the border rabbit proof fence and to the north by of netting running at right angles to the border fence. The average rainfall on the leasehold for 1896 to 1899 was only per annum, prompting the Minister of lands to grant ''very liberal concessions'' to leaseholders in the area, particularly remission of rents.

acquired the property in 1916 when its size was estimated at . Although the 1916 season had been an excellent one, with tall grasses and full waterholes, the region suffered from

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, ...

for the next couple of years. In 1923 over 4,500 head of cattle were purchased from Naryilco for the purpose of restocking Quinyambie, it was thought to be one of the biggest cattle deals of the time. By 1924 the area was being 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, Quinyambie had been carrying flocks of up to 20,000 sheep but since the pest arrived numbers had dropped substantially. A fire destroyed the homestead in 1945. Following an outbreak of pleuro-pneumonia in the cattle at nearby Lake Frome Station, Quinyambie and other surrounding properties were placed under

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

in 1950. It was estimated that 2,000 cattle were infected. Quinyambie and the surrounding district suffered from a prolonged four year

from 1950 to 1954, which was broken by good falls late that year, with falling in one day. Quinyambie was placed on the market in June 2010 when it was stocked with only 1,430 cattle. The maximum herd size is 11,000 head with an average of 9,000 head. The station was advertised as having over of outstanding feed cover. The property was sold July 2010 to the Mutooroo Pastoral Company, run by the Morgan and Wells families, who own the adjoining Mulyungarie Station and other property in the region. Mulyungarie was running between 3,000 and 4,000 head of cattle and shares a boundary fence with Quinyambie. It was believed that the sale price was between $8 million and $10 million. The land occupying the extent of the Quinyambie pastoral lease was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Quinyambie'.

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations in South Australia Far North (South Australia)

Description

History

See also

References