Arckaringa 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 graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

which 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 now operates 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 ...

. It is located approximately south west of

Oodnadatta Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback road ...

and north of

Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...

. Most of the property is composed of

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

plains, flood-out creek systems and breakaway country. The

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

Arckaringa Creek runs through the property. The property and the Creek are both named after the rocky outcrop, Mount Arckaringa in the Painted Desert. The name is Aboriginal in origin but the meaning is not known. The property currently occupies an area of and is able to carry 2,100 head of cattle. The average rainfall in the area is with stock on the property reliant on water from 17 bores and dug out 20 dams. A government

bore Bore or Bores often refer to: *Boredom * Drill Relating to holes * Boring (manufacturing), a machining process that enlarges a hole ** Bore (engine), the diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or a steam locomotive ** Bore (wind instruments), ...

had been sunk on the upper Arckaringa Creek in 1883 for the purposes of watering stock along a stock route than ran through the area from the

Musgrave Ranges Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) and the Northern Territory (MacDonnell Shire), extending into Western Australia. It is between the Great V ...

. Established some time prior to 1908 the property occupied an area of approximately and was stocked with 2,000 sheep. The property was having a reasonable season 1912 when it occupied an area of within a dry season. The government were planning to sink a bore near the centre of the run as the owner, Mr. F. C. Staer, had lost nearly 400 sheep. In 1913 when the property was having a good season, high grass samples were sent from Arckaringa to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

for cultivation. The property was owned in 1913 by Mr. F. C. Steer who was still running sheep. In 1925 Arckaringa was owned by Alexander McLeod, and had experienced heavy rains. In 1935 the area was inundated by heavy rains with Arckaringa receiving in one day. The creek ran over wide in full flood, filling all the waterholes and dams in the area. In 2000 a new endangered plant species was discovered on the station, '' Olearia arckaringensis'', a form of Daisy-bush with approximately 200 found during a survey. The property was struck by

drought A drought is defined as 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, an ...

in 2004. The land occupying the extent of the Arckaringa Station pastoral lease was gazetted as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Arckaringa'.

References

{{Stations of South Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in South Australia Far North (South Australia)

See also

References