Auvergne Station often just referred to as Auvergne is a pastoral lease that 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 stat ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

of Australia.

Location

It is located about west of Timber Creek and east of Kununurra, in the

but close to the border 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 ...

. Auvergne shares a boundary with Bullo River Station to the north,

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Armagh, Armagh and County Down, Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry ...

to the west and the Winan Aboriginal Land Trust to the south. The

Victoria Highway The Victoria Highway links the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia with the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. The highway is a part of the Perth - Darwin National Highway link. It is signed as National Highway 1, and is part ...

and the Auvegne Stock Route both bisect the property from east to west.

Description

Occupying an area of of which about half is forested country, a quarter of which is open plains well covered in mitchell and flinders grasses. The last quarter is made up of red loam river country and coastal flood plains. The property is capable of carrying 32,000 head of stock and annually turns off 10,000 head to markets in Asia via the port of Wyndham in

. The property is currently owned by the CAIT. Several watercourses run through the property including the Bullo River, Baines River, East Baines River, Blackfellow Creek and Snake Creek with the Victoria River forming the northern boundary

History

Auvergne was established in 1886. The initial owner was

John Arthur Macartney John Arthur Macartney (5 April 1834 - 10 June 1917) was an Irish-born Australian colonist, pastoralist, squatter and grazier who established a large number of frontier cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Early life John Art ...

who had 2,000 cattle overlanded to Auvergne in 1886 with another 8,000 on the road behind them. Sam "Greenhide" Croker was one of the first station managers at Auvergne. He was shot dead in 1892 during a game of cards by an Aboriginal stockman named Charley Flannigan. Flannigan was arrested at Ord River Station and escorted to Darwin for trial, where he was found guilty and duly executed in 1893. Flannigan was the first person legally executed in the Northern Territory. The notorious Jack Watson took over management at Auvergne after the death of Croker but only lasted a year, resigning in 1894. The property was acquired by Francis Connor and Denis Doherty in 1896, by this stage the station occupied an area of with frontage onto the Victoria River. It was stocked with approximately 7,000 head of cattle and 300 horses and was to be managed by Mr Desmond. By 1897

Michael Durack Michael Patrick Durack, (22 July 1865 – 3 September 1950) was a pastoralist and Western Australian pioneer, known as "M.P." or to the family as "Miguel". He was the son of Patrick Durack and Mary Costello, both Irish-Australians. Life and c ...

became a part-owner of the station. Flanagan was arrested at Ord River Station and escorted to Darwin for trial. Flanagan was tried, found guilty and duly executed in 1893. By 1905 the size of the station was estimated at and had a herd of approximately 20,000

shorthorn The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late eighteenth century. The breed was developed as dual-purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however, certain blood lines within the breed always emp ...

cattle said at the time to ''be in splendid condition.'' The recent seasons had been good and the Baynes River East and Baynes River east were both flowing with the

billabong Billabong ( ) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end. As a result ...

s and lakes all full of water. A stockman named Alexander McDonald was murdered by Aborigines at Auvergne in 1918, he was found by the station manager, Archie Skulthorp, with a

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

in his back and the ''tracks of a big mob of natives'' leading off into the bush. By 1923 the size of the property was estimated at and was one of the larger runs in the

, although it was less than half the size of the largest of the day; Victoria River Downs, which occupied . An Aboriginal murderer known as ''Tiger'' was murdered himself at Auvergne in 1953. ''Tiger'' was killed by another Aborigine known as ''Split Lip Dick'' who fled into the bush with ''Tiger's'' young wife. Over 5,000 unbranded scrub bulls had to be shot at the property in the same year. Most of were thought to have come from neighbouring Victoria River Downs which was a far less developed property. Auvergne had a herd of about 18,000 head in 1953. At about the same time the property had been acquired by the Peel River Land and Mineral Company along with

Headingly Station Headingly Station often just referred to as Headingly is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. It is located about south of Camooweal and west of Dajarra in Queensland. The property occupies an area of of Queensland's Gulf c ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. In 2010 the station manager, Stuart McKechnie, found the fossilised remains of a

Diprotodon ''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most speci ...

sticking out of a riverbank on the property. Although lacking a tail and a head the skeleton was almost completely intact. McKechnie kept the remains a secret for two years before

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

s from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory came to excavate it in 2012.

References

{{Coord, 15.68556, S, 130.00819, E, type:landmark_region:AU-WA, display=title Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory 1886 establishments in Australia

Location

Description

History

See also

References