Yardie Creek, or Yardie Creek Station, 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 in the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gascoyne has about of ...

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 ...

. It is situated approximately west-northwest of

Exmouth Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort situated on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe, southeast of Exeter. In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of settl ...

and north of Coral Bay. The area was under

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 ...

beginning in 1876 when J Brockman acquired leases in the area covering

North West Cape North West Cape is a peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia. Cape Range National Park, Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge. It is in the Gascoyne region and includes the town of ...

to run cattle. Brockman sold parts of the lease in 1888 to

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Thomas Carter, including Yardie Creek,

Exmouth Gulf Exmouth Gulf is a Bay, gulf in the North West Australia, north-west of Western Australia. It lies between North West Cape and the main coastline of Western Australia. It is considered to be part of the Pilbara Coast and Northwest Shelf, and t ...

and Ningaloo Station. Carter was the first settler in the area and established a pastoral station in 1889 grazing sheep. The working station was resumed by the government in December 1969 as part of the

Cape Range National Park Cape Range National Park is a national park in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The park occupies the western side of the North West Cape peninsula over an area of . The nearest town is Exmouth, and directly off the c ...

. The station experienced

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, ...

conditions in 1912, after which it was overrun by

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s who came from the hill country in search of water. The following year a station partner, Mr Holst, reported the country had reasonable rains with falling in June followed by a downpour in July. Arnold Owen Holst and Alexander Campbell dissolved their partnership in 1927; Campbell remained at Yardie Creek and took up in partnership with Eric Arthur Payne some time soon after. The station took delivery of 50

ram Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

s in 1928, followed by 50

merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

rams from Walebing in 1929. The partnership between Campbell and Payne was dissolved in 1936, with Payne being in control of the lease. Campbell abandoned the station in 1938 following drought and the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and went to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. He claimed the station had been improved from virgin country of a value of about £14,000. The Payne family held the lease for the station until 1962. In 1946 many of the buildings around the station were destroyed by a

cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

. The station was hit by another cyclone in 1953, resulting in extensive damage to the homestead and several outbuildings being demolished. The Broad family were the last occupiers of the pastoral lease and they left the area in 1970. The area was declared a national park in 1964, and the Ningaloo Marine Park was declared in 1987. The Yardie Creek

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

was registered as a heritage site on the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

in 1978. Parts of the timber and iron used to build the out-buildings were salvaged from . The ship was carrying cattle from 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 ...

when it was driven aground and wrecked on North West Reef in 1907 during a

References

{{Stations of the Gascoyne Western Australia Homesteads in Western Australia Stations in Gascoyne Shire of Exmouth Heritage places of Western Australia

See also

References