Bidgemia Station, commonly referred to as Bidgemia, 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

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 ...

. It is situated about east of Carnarvon and south east of Coral Bay in the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gasc ...

region. The property is currently owned and managed by Lachlan and Jane McTaggart, and has been owned by the family since 1947. Following a period of

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 ...

, the homestead was partially destroyed during the 2010 floods when the Gascoyne River rose over above its normal levels. The floodwaters were over above the record set in 1980 but still did not reach the homestead. The McTaggart family spent the night on a water tank waiting to be rescued. Volunteers from the group BlazeAid helped clean up around the property in the months after the flooding, repairing fences and buildings. Following expeditions through the area in 1879,

Robert Edwin Bush Robert Edwin Bush (11 October 1855 – 29 December 1939) was a British explorer, businessman, sportsman, and politician who was primarily known for his activities in colonial Western Australia. Arriving there in the 1870s, he was one of the sett ...

took up leases and established a holding he named ''Pindandora Station'' in 1880. The local

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

people referred to the area as ''Bidjia Mia'', meaning place of the bidjie grub, and the station eventually took on the name ''Bidgemia''. Bush set about expanding his holdings, acquiring over , including

Mount Clere Station Mount Clere Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a sheep station but currently operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. The property is situated approximately north west of Meekatharra and south of Paraburdoo in the ...

and Erravilla. The area was struck by

in the early 1900s and it took Bush some years to completely restock. In 1904 Bush left to live in England, leaving William Scott to manage the property. Scott left in 1912 when he acquired Mooloo Downs, leaving Bidgemia under the management of Bill Cream. In 1924 over 66,000 sheep were shorn at Bidgemia. The following year 52,000 were cut out and shorn producing 1,000 bales of wool.

References

{{Stations of the Gascoyne Western Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in Western Australia Shire of Upper Gascoyne

See also

References