Byro 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 ...

and

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 ...

that also carries cattle, located in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

region 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 ...

Description

Situated approximately north of Yalgoo and north west of Cue. The property is approximately in area. The

Wooramel River The Wooramel River is an ephemeral river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The river rises near McLeod Pyramid and flows in a westerly direction, joined by six tributaries including the Wooramel River North, Bilung Creek, One Gum Cre ...

runs across the plains at the western end of the station. The country is undulating and broken with belts of

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

and grasses.

History

The area was opened up in 1877 when stock were first introduced into the Upper Murchison. Mr J. R. O'Grady of Milly Milly Station and the prospector G. Woodley took stock to the area and explored the Wooramel River with O'Grady, who took up Byro Plains Station before later selling to the Nairn brothers. Walter Nairn used to travel about the Murchison with his father, James Nairn. Together they selected Mount Jonbert Station, which was later renamed as Byro station around 1882. Walter settled in the area and remained there for 31 years before moving to Popanyinning.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

was discovered on Byro Plain in 1890, by a prospector name Fredred who found some "splendid" specimens. James Nairn joined his father, Walter J. Nairn, and his brother Edward, at the station to help with its management while in his early 20s in 1897. The Nairn brothers sold 1,500

wether Wether may refer to: *A castrated male goat *A castrated male sheep *A misspelling of weather *A misspelling of whether *Wether Down, a hill in Hampshire *Wether Hill (Lake District), a hill in Cumbria *Wether Holm (disambiguation) See also *Weth ...

s and 150

bullock Bullock may refer to: Animals * Bullock (in British English), a castrated male bovine animal of any age * Bullock (in North America), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal) * Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an ox, an adu ...

s from the station in 1908 to Mr. G. J. Gooch. Edward Nairn was appointed as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

of the Gascoyne magisterial district in 1911 while living at Byro. By 1912, the station was expecting to shear 20,000 sheep using all eight stands in the

shearing shed Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities. In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds ar ...

. W. J. Nairn sold Byro to the Darlot brothers in 1913. The Darlots had previously owned

Beringarra Station Beringarra Station, most commonly referred to as Beringarra, is a pastoral lease that once operated as a sheep station but is currently operating as a cattle station in Western Australia. The property is situated approximately north west of ...

, which they had bought in 1881. The Darlot brothers had also acquired nearby

Billabalong Station Billabalong Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a sheep station but currently operates as cattle station in Western Australia. It was located north of Mullewa and west of Cue in the Mid West region. The Murchison River runs ...

. The Darlots intended to make many improvements and use Byro for breeding and Billabalong as a depot. Mr E. Roberts commenced as the station manager in 1913 and left nearly five years later in 1918 to take over at Dandragan Station. His replacement was Mr. J. M. Keogh. A bore was sunk at the station to secure a reliable sub-artesian supply of water for the stock in 1917. Water was struck at a depth of with water rising to of the surface. It delivered up to of water per hour. The Darlots sold 500 cows and calves from the holding in 1918. In 1922 the Darlots bought and took delivery of 15,000

s from the Butchers of

Meeberrie Meeberrie is a homestead and station name in the Murchison district of Western Australia. The station is situated approximately north of Mullewa. The Butcher family were the first leaseholders of the station and arrived from Victoria in 187 ...

and

Boolathana Station Boolathana Station is a pastoral lease currently operating as a cattle station that once operated as a sheep station in Western Australia. Description The property is situated approximately north of Carnarvon and south of Coral Bay in the ...

s. The flock were in prime condition and at the time this was considered the largest sale of wethers in the state from a breeder to a single buyer. By 1925, Keogh was still running the property, which had held 28,000 sheep and 5,200 head of cattle in 1923. Following a drought in 1924 the majority of the stock had been moved south to the Darlots' other property of Urilla. At one point in 1925 only 5,000 sheep remained on Byro. Everard Firebrace Darlot died in November 1937 leaving the surviving members of the firm, his brother

Leonard Darlot Leonard Hawthorne Darlot (18 September 1862 – 3 August 1943) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1900 to 1901, representing Electoral district of De Grey, De Grey. His brother, E ...

and partner Norman D'Arcy, to retain ownership of the station. The station continued to produce quality wool and sold 8 bales in 1941, 106 in 1945, 102 bales in 1946, 12 bales in 1948, an astonishing 121 in 1949, and another 97 bales in 1950. The leasee in 2010 was Revive Nominees Pty. Ltd.; Byro is operating under the Crown Lease number CL774-1966 and has the Land Act number LA3114/700.

References

{{Coord, 26, 4, 40, S, 116, 9, 7, E, type:landmark_region:AU-WA, display=title Homesteads in Western Australia Pastoral leases in Western Australia Shire of Murchison Stations (Australian agriculture)