Alroy Downs 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 ...

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 stati ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Location

The property is situated approximately east of

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...

in the Northern Territory and west of

Camooweal Camooweal is an outback town and locality in the City of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. The locality is on the Queensland border with the Northern Territory. In the , the locality of Camooweal had a population of 208 people. Geography The l ...

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 , established_ ...

. Located on the

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Terr ...

a portion of the Playford River flows also through the station as does a portion of Buchanan Creek. It shares a boundary with

Brunette Downs Station Brunette Downs Station, mostly referred to as Brunette Downs, is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Location Brunette Downs Station is located in the Northern Territory about north-eas ...

to the north, Rockhampton Downs to the west, Dalmore Downs to the south and Alexandria Station to the east. The

Tablelands Highway The Tablelands Highway is a 375 kilometre single lane sealed road in the Northern Territory, Australia. It runs from Barkly Homestead on the Barkly Highway to Cape Crawford, Northern Territory, Cape Crawford near Borroloola on the Carpentaria ...

bisects the property.

Description

The landscape consists of clay plains of various origins that support stands of

Mitchell Mitchell may refer to: People *Mitchell (surname) *Mitchell (given name) Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate * Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst * Mitchell, Northern Territo ...

and other annual grasses. The southern areas are more

lateritic Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

in origin with the red coloured earth of the outback. Drainage areas,

Coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves ...

swampland and areas of bluebush are found in the north of the property. Currently the property occupies an area of .

History

Alroy Downs was founded on

Yindjilandji The Yindjilandji are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language The Yindjilandji language is usually grouped as one of the Ngarna languages, and considered a southern variety, and either a dialect of Wagawa if not an inde ...

tribal lands. The lease was first granted in 1877 with the property being established in 1878 by W.Lamb. It was later acquired by the J. C. Schmidt in 1914 who appointed F. Story to manage the property. Schmidt's son Rudolf ran the property from 1934 to 1936 and remained in the family most recently run by Trevor Schmidt who was also the managing Director of the

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

from 1974 to 1988. The property was acquired by the Stanbroke Pastoral Company in 1984. Peter Sherwin bought Alroy Downs in 2004 for 30 million in the Stanbroke sell-off and sold it in 2008 for 70 million. The property was in the grips of a

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 ...

it was sold. The purchaser was Sterling Buntine.

References

{{Reflist Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory Stations (Australian agriculture) 1877 establishments in Australia

Location

Description

History

See also

References