StateLibQld 2 388361 Tuaburra, an outstation of Bowen Downs Station, 1898

Bowen Downs Station is a pastoral lease that has operated both 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 statio ...

and 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 sou ...

. It is located about east of Muttaburra and north west of

Aramac Aramac is a rural town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Aramac had a population of 299 people. Geography Aramac is located north of Barcaldine, and by road from the state capital, Brisbane. It is situate ...

in the

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...

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_ ...

. It is watered by the Thomson River and tributaries Reedy Creek and Cornish Creek that all run through the property.

History

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 Iningai peoples. Iningai (also known as Yiningay, Muttaburra, Tateburra, Yinangay, Yinangi) is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken by the Iningai people. The Iningai language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Longreach Region and

Barcaldine Region The Barcaldine Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas which had existed for over a century. It has an estimated operating budget o ...

, particularly the towns of Longreach, Barcaldine, Muttaburra and

as well as the properties of Bowen Downs and catchments of

Cornish Creek Cornish Creek is a former rural locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Cornish Creek had a population of 16 people. On 22 November 2019 the Queensland Government decided to amalgamate the localities in the Barcaldine ...

and Alice River. The first Europeans to visit the area were the explorers

William Landsborough William Landsborough (21 February 1825 – 16 March 1886) was an explorer of Australia and notably he was the first explorer to complete a North-to-South crossing of Australia. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early l ...

and

Nathaniel Buchanan Nathaniel Buchanan (1826 – 23 September 1901) was an Australian pioneer pastoralist, drover and explorer. Early life Buchanan was born near Dublin, and was of Scottish descent the son of Lieutenant Charles Henry Buchanan, and his wife ...

who passed through in 1860. Landsborough named the area Bowen Downs after the Queensland Governor, Sir

George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen (; 2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899), was an Irish author and colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.R. B. J ...

. By 1861 the area was opened for settlement and the pair applied for the lease. To finance the station Landsborough and Buchanan formed a partnership with Robert Morehead and Matthew Young, of the Scottish Australian Investment Company, and Edward Cornish, a friend of Landsborough. The property was established in 1862, and was the last post at which people travelling further inland could purchase provisions. Nat Buchanan was the initial manager of the property that was stocked with 3,000 cattle. The property occupied an area of at the time. Aramac Station, to the south of Bowen Downs, was next to be settled in 1863. 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 ...

, Buchanan walked off Bowen Downs in 1867, abandoning his one eighth share to Morehead. By 1870 the run was regarded as one of the finest in Australia stretching over across the plains of Central Queensland and covered with Mitchell grass supporting a herd of 60,000 cattle. Harry Redford and his accomplices George Dewdney and William Rooke stole between 600 and 1,000 cattle, then overlanded the stock approximately down Cooper Creek to outback

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 ...

. The trek took over three months and the men sold the stock for £5000 to Blanchewater Station. Station employees tracked the herd and Redford was eventually arrested for the crime. In 2013 the property was acquired by the Hartley family who had just sold their Barcaldine properties. They paid 9.7 million for the property that adjoined other properties in their portfolio.

References

{{Reflist Stations (Australian agriculture) Central West Queensland Pastoral leases in Queensland 1862 establishments in Australia

History

See also

References