Witchelina Nature Reserve, in

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 ...

, is situated on a former

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 ...

known as Witchelina that had operated as both 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 ...

and

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 ...

, before being converted into a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

by the Nature Foundation. The station gave its name to the locality of Witchelina. The property is situated approximately northwest of Leigh Creek and north of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. The country comprises

gibber plain A desert pavement, also called reg (in western Sahara), serir (in eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (in central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded Rock (geology), rock fragments ...

s, red river gum and

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, ...

woodlands, bluebush shrubland,

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

plains, and

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

dunefields.

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

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct Aboriginal Australian peoples of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi but th ...

and

Arabunna Arabana or Arabuna is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken by the Wongkanguru and Arabana people. The language is in steep decline, with an estimated 250 speakers according to 2004 NILS, to just 21 speakers f ...

peoples; Witchelina straddles of the boundary of both the groups' traditional lands. The property was first established as a sheep station by John Ragless in 1873. Ragless' sons, Frederick and Richard, left Witchelina in 1882 with 2,500 sheep and three station hands to open up a property east of Lake Callabonna; after some poor seasons, the brothers abandoned the run in 1886. In 1915 the property was carrying a flock of approximately 4,000 sheep. The Ragless brothers placed Witchelina on the market in 1916, at this time it occupied an area of with a 10-room homestead, a 20-stand

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 ...

and a complete boundary fence.

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 ...

acquired the property in partnership with Lewis and Pearce. Following a heat wave in 1932, the station manager, Mr. Gourlay, trapped an estimated 100,000 rabbits, including 5,000 in a single night. In 1949, the area had good rains, although several miles of boundary fence at Witchelina were washed away. Kidman estates disposed of Witchelina,

Mount Nor' West Mount Nor' West Station is a pastoral lease in outback South Australia that once operated as a sheep station but is now a cattle station. It is located approximately south of Marree and north west of Lyndhurst. History The lease was tak ...

, Myrtle Springs and Ediacra stations with a combined area of over in 1950. The purchasers were A. S. Toll, E. G. and J. L. Boynthon, who had established the Myrtle Springs Pastoral company. The property was on the market in 2009. The property boasts a stone two-story homestead, a three bedroom manager's house, a ten-room shearers' quarters, a six-stone shearing shed, and significant shedding around the holding. The property is rated to carry either 6,600 head of cattle or 33,000 sheep. In 2010,

Nature Foundation SA Nature Foundation, formerly The National Parks Foundation and Nature Foundation SA Inc. (NFSA), is the largest non-government nature conservation organisation based in South Australia. It was founded in October 1981, and is supported by the Gov ...

purchased the property with two-thirds of the funds provided by a

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

grant via the

Caring for Our Country The Natural Heritage Trust (NHT), or National Heritage Trust Account was set up in 1997 by means of the ''Natural Heritage Trust of Australia Act 1997'', with the main objective of conserving the "natural capital infrastructure" of Australia. Mo ...

program, with strong assistance from some private donors and

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 ...

land purchase funds. The station was reported as being the state's largest private nature reserve, forming "a vital habitat link for

Lake Torrens Lake Torrens ( Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf. ...

into the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

External links

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations in South Australia Nature reserves in South Australia Far North (South Australia) 1873 establishments in Australia Gawler bioregion Protected areas established in 2010

History

See also

External links

References