Abydos Station is a pastoral lease 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 ...

located between Tom Price and

Marble Bar Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphosed ...

and approximately 126 km South of

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The station occupies an area of , and in 1946 had of fencing and the property was divided into 18 paddocks. The property also had 28

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s equipped with mills and a

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

and

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 ar ...

. The

Turner River The Turner River is a river in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Overview The headwaters of the river rise below Pullcunah Hill and flows in a northerly direction and crosses the North West Coastal Highway approximately south of Por ...

flows through a portion of Abydos, and one of the neighbouring properties is Redcliffs Station. The

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the area are the Kariyarra peoples, who maintain a strong connection with country at Abydos and the nearby

Yandeyarra Community Yandeyarra (also referred to as Mugarinya) is a large Aboriginal community, located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, within the Town of Port Hedland. History Yandeyarra was established in 1964 and has a population of approximatel ...

. In 1912 the station was owned by Hall and Hester and was shipping

bullock Bullock may refer to: Animals * Bullock (in British English), a castrated male bovine animal of any age * Bullock (in North America), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal) * Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an ox, an adu ...

s out of Roebourne. The rationing officer at the station in 1930 was Frank Leeds; the station was in debt to the tune of 13,000 pounds at the time. The station is home to a rock formation known as the London Wall or China Wall, which is about wide and long; the feature looks as though it is man-made but is a natural formation of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

tors Tors may refer to: * Tor (rock formation), rock outcrops * Ivan Tors (1916–1983), playwright, screenwriter and film and television producer * TransOral Robotic Surgery, a surgical technique See also * Tor (disambiguation) * Ten Tors * Tors Cov ...

that has been uplifted. The formation was first reported in 1938. The

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 autonomy, or ...

purchased Abydos and Woodstock stations in 1946. Both were set up to operate as research stations under the management of the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

, Department of Agriculture and Institute of Agriculture of

UWA The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. The station suffered some damage in 1947 when 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 anti ...

passed through the area. The shearing shed and the cook's quarters were blown over, and an estimated of rain fell.

References

{{Stations of the Pilbara Western Australia Pastoral leases in Western Australia Pilbara Stations (Australian agriculture)