Thylungra 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 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 ...

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 ...

Description

The property is situated approximately northwest of

Quilpie Quilpie ( ) is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Quilpie, Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Quilpie had a population of 530 people. The town is the administrative cent ...

and southeast of

Windorah Windorah is a town and a locality in the Shire of Barcoo, Queensland, Australia. It is one of only three towns in the Shire of Barcoo in Central West Queensland. In the , the locality of Windorah had a population of 104 people. Geography Loca ...

. Neighbouring properties include the Milo and Budgerygar aggregation and Arleun Station, all owned or leased by George Scott, the current owner of Thylungra. It is located 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 ...

on Kyabra Creek, a tributary of

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its ...

. The property is predominantly open downs flood-out country with black soils to the south, featuring large areas of gidyea stands interspersed with low sandhills. The north consists mostly of mulga country, while the remainder of the property is stony range country. The area mainly contains

Mitchell grass ''Astrebla'' is a small genus of xerophytic (adapted to survive in an environment with little liquid water) grasses found only in Australia. They are the dominant grass across much of the continent. They are commonly known as Mitchell grass aft ...

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 ...

, blue grass, bluebush, buttongrass, burr and neverfail on the floodplains. Timbered areas feature stands of gidyea, mulga,

coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, ...

, yarpunyah, bloodwood and supplejack.

History

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

Punthamara The Punthamara were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. Country According to Norman Tindale, the Punthamara's tribal territories embraced roughly , along the creeks flowing east of the Grey Range, whose western flank the ...

people, also known as ''Buntamurra'', who have inhabited the region for thousands of years. The name ''Thylungra'' is derived from the Buntamurra phrase ''thillung gurra'' meaning ''permanent water'', as one of the waterholes in the area was thought to be permanent.

1850–1899

The property was initially established 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 ...

by pioneer

Patrick Durack Patrick Durack (March 1834 – 20 January 1898) was a pastoral pioneer in Western Australia. His family were struggling tenant farmers from Magherareagh near Scarriff in County Clare, Ireland, who moved from Ireland to New South Wales in 1853. ...

(1834–1898) in 1868, along with the nearby Kyabra Station. By 1878, the property had been placed on the market, along with adjoining Bungindery Station. At that time, they occupied a combined area of and were stocked with 9,000 head of cattle and 300 horses. In 1882, Durack left Thylungra to establish

Argyle Downs Argyle Downs is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about south east of Kununurra in the Kimberley region near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. It is operated by the Consolidated Pastoral Company. Descript ...

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 ...

. starting with approximately 7,250 head of cattle and 200 horses, which he overlanded about . Half the stock did not survive the journey, which Durack completed nearly two and a half years later. Thylungra was sold some time in 1884, where it was described as "the reputation of being the finest station in the colony, instead of being lightly stocked with cattle, will be turned to their legitimate and most profitable use in the production of wool". Durack faced legal action to recover the commission still owed to the company that sold the property. The purchasers were the Queensland Cooperative Pastoral Company, which placed it on the market when it went into

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

in 1886, along with several other properties including Galway Downs, Buckingham Downs and Pikedale. At this time, Thylungra occupied an area of and was stocked with 15,000 cattle and 200 horses. By 1890, the property was owned by the Thylungra Pastoral Company. The property was had involvement with the

1891 Australian shearers' strike The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. The dispute was primarily between Trade union, unionised and non-unionised wool workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking wor ...

, with police patrols against the unionists. By 1896, the lessee was the

Union Bank of Australia The Union Bank of Australia was a bank that operated in Australia and New Zealand from 1837 to 1951. The Union Bank was established in London in October 1837 with a subscribed capital of £500,000. The foundation of the bank followed a visit t ...

, and the property was managed by Henry Roche. The area experienced its third year of the

Federation Drought The Federation Drought was a prolonged period of drought that occurred in Australia around the time of Federation in 1901. Though often thought of as a long drought, until the record dry year of 1902 the period was actually one of a number of ve ...

in 1897, with very little feed available. The Land Board Court sat in late-1896 to determine the rent charged by the Union Bank, where it was stated the holdings were , it was considered to carry 20 head of stock per mile, dam-making was not favourable and only one of the bores could provide a fair supply of water, no regular summer rainfall at the time and the stock condition was presently poor due to food scarcity, and noted the property was the best in the district. The January 1896 return was 36,000 cattle, 471 horses, and 500 sheep; 8,690 cattle sold between August 1895 and November 1896, between 20 and 25

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

a head (in 2020, about A$160 a head). With five permanent water holes, one individual suggested the run was better for sheep than cattle, with a possible carrying capacity of 200,000 sheep. The Court's decision was to reduce the rent from the 1893 assessment of £1 8s per square mile to £1 2s 6d. This was in line with several other properties. The remoteness of the area saw several loss and near-loss of lives with an exhausted male (1884), a deceased travelling saddler (1887), a deceased person (1889), and a suicide (1896).

1900–1949

In mid-1901, the station was back in the Land Court, protesting against the pastoral rents, outlining the damage from the

. By 1902, the property was almost completely destocked. The Rabbit Board continued to be active against the pastoral and environmental damage of the pest. At some time prior to 1906, the property had been stocked with sheep. In that year, it was purchased by politicians John Leahy (1854–1909), former premier

Robert Philp Sir Robert Philp, (28 December 1851 – 17 June 1922) was a Queensland businessman and politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1899 to September 1903 and again from November 1907 to February 1908. Early life Philp was born in G ...

(1851–1922), and James Forsyth (1852–1927), encompassing an area of about of country. Philp indicated in early 1907 the pastoral holding was looking good, and intends to stock with sheep and make gradual improvements. In June 1907, of resumed Thylungra land was sold at auction to Joseph Tully. Shearers went on strike at Thylungra in 1910, demanding better equipment before returning to work, also deploring the poor wages and conditions by the property owners. The following year, over 100,000 sheep were to be shorn at Thylungra. Leahy died in 1909, and his interest in the property was sold to Forsyth and Philp. Thylungra produced 107

bales Bales is the surname of: * Alison Bales (born 1985), American basketball player * Barry Bales (born 1969), American musician * Billy Bales (born 1929), British former motorcycle speedway racer * Burt Bales (1917–1989), American jazz pianist ...

of wool weighing over in 1913, at which time Simon Edwin Munro (1865–1945) joined the lease. Wire-netting for rabbit-proof fencing was obtained on contract from the Queensland Government in 1912, but before parliament in November 1917 became a question of whether this was paid by the property owner. This came to light when an adjoining station lessee paid Philp and associates for his contribution of costs for the fence netting. Poor wages among the shed hands was raised in December 1916, with another strike in October 1919 for a 40-hour week which was unsuccessful, settling on a 44-hour working week and free motor fares one-way to Charleville. In mid-1925, the property lost 107 fattened cattle due to fuchsia bush poisoning when brought to the

trucking yards. In July 1928 the pastoral lease rent for Thylungra was set at 45 shillings per square mile, even though drought conditions was observed in many areas a few months earlier. In April 1933, the properties of Thylungra, Bulgroo, and Kyabra were collectively sold for £80,000 (in 2020, A$8,320,000) by Thylungra Pastoral Company (Messieurs Philp, Munro, and Forsyth) to the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company. Queensland State Archives 5303 Boree tree Cunnamulla to Thylungra S Route January 1955

Queensland State Archives 5303 Boree tree Cunnamulla to Thylungra S Route January 1955

Queensland State Archives 5338 Watering facility Goodlah Quilpie Thylungra January 1955

1950–1999

Thylungra was sold in 1992 by Toni Woods of

Goondiwindi Goondiwindi () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In the , the locality of Goondiwindi had a population of 6, ...

to Clyde Agricultural.

2000 onwards

In 2008, the Clyde Agricultural Company sold Thylungra for 10.5 million to George Scott in a private sale after it had been passed in at auction a month earlier. The property occupied an area of and was stocked with 45,000 sheep and almost 2,000 head of cattle. Since taking over the property, most of it was being fenced, and herd diversification with sheep for drought resilience was being considered. In March 2025, the property and station buildings were inundated with flood waters from monsoonal rains; levels recorded at Jundah higher than the 1974 levels.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Stations in Queensland South West Queensland 1868 establishments in Australia