Yarraloola or Yarraloola 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 once operated 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 ...

but is 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 ...

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 located west of Pannawonica and east of Onslow along the Robe River in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region. Messrs. H. and W. Woolhouse took up Yarraloola in 1878 and had developed a good reputation for their breeding program for horses and sheep by 1886. Floodwaters following heavy rain caused severe damage to Yarraloola in 1894, with many parts of the homestead flooded under of water. A total of 400 sheep were washed away in the floodwaters as was about of fencing. By the end of the same year 10,500 sheep were

shorn 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 ...

for a clip of 150 bales of wool. The property was put 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 1898; at this time it occupied an area of and had of double frontage on the Robe River. The area was grassed with silver, plain and bundle-bundle grasses as well as areas of salt bush. Two three-room cottages made from

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibro ...

with iron roofing, a corrugated iron woolshed, yards, sleeping quarters, kitchen and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop had been built along with seven paddocks contained within of fencing. Stocked with 11,600 mixed sheep, 230 cattle and 180 horses watered by the river and seven windlasses, it was acquired by G.P Paterson and A.R. Richardson, who had previously partly owned Yeeda Station. In 1915, the property passed 16,500 sheep over the boards during shearing producing 250 bales of wool. This followed an excellent season where the of rain was recorded in six months. Although the 1919 season was poorer, with Yarraloola only receiving over seven months, 19,500 sheep were shorn yielding 252 bales of wool. The current homestead was constructed by Keith Paterson in 1919; the building process was quite slow but improved as road access to the station for motor vehicles arrived in the 1920s. Station workers felt the tremor and saw the

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently e ...

produced by a

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Bec ...

conducted on the

Monte Bello Islands The Montebello Islands, also rendered as the Monte Bello Islands, are an archipelago of around 174 small islands, about 92 of which are named, lying north of Barrow Island (Western Australia), Barrow Island and off the Pilbara region of W ...

in 1952, situated approximately from the property. The station was severely flooded in 2009 when the Robe River burst its banks. Jason Reimers, the station manager, his family, ringers, Matt Jordan and Cody Harper had to be evacuated from the property after a tropical depression crossed the coast. Yarraloola is currently owned by Robe River Iron Associates joint venture through the Yarraloola Pastoral Company and managed by Rio Tinto.

References

{{Stations of the Pilbara Western Australia Stations in the Pilbara 1878 establishments in Australia

See also

References