Caryapundy Station most commonly known as Caryapundy or Caryapundy Swamp 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 once operated 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 ...

in the

channel country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region ...

of outback

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Geography

It is situated about north east of

Tibooburra Tibooburra (pronounced or ) is a town in the far northwest of New South Wales, Australia, located from the state capital, Sydney. It is most frequently visited by tourists on their way to Sturt National Park or on the way to or from Inn ...

and west of

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, northeast of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the town alongside the ...

. The tender was accepted for the run named Caryapundy by J. C. Myers in 1872. Myers was also had his tenders accepted for other runs such as Bollwarry, Mount Wood, Teriwinda and Torrens Creek. In 1873 the unstocked property was put up for

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

by the Minister of Lands. The property was put up for sale as part of five blocks owned by Mr. O'Connor. Caryapundy, Conulpie, Bolwarry, Omura No. 5 and Omura No. 6 were all for sale and advertised as being of

Burke and Wills The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. It consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the s ...

track and well watered by the

Bulloo River The Bulloo River is an isolated drainage system in western Queensland, central Australia. Its floodplain, which extends into northern New South Wales, is an important area for waterbirds when inundated. It comprises most of the Bulloo-Banc ...

, Tongowoko, Torrens and other creeks. At the time the area was made up of grassed downs and saltbush country. By 1892 the property was in the hands of

Sidney Kidman Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoral farming, pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime. ...

who moved 10,000 sheep and 1,000 head of cattle from the station, still owned by the Kidman Brothers in 1899, Sidney Kidman described it as "one of the worst in New South Wales, the might carry 230 cattle but no more, much of it is a

claypan Claypan is a dense, compact, slowly permeable layer in the subsoil. It has a much higher clay content than the overlying material, from which it is separated by a sharply defined boundary. The dense structure restricts root growth and water infiltra ...

that will never carry feed".

Caryapundy Swamp

The swamp is a wetland that partly lies within the station boundaries. The wetland straddles Queensland and New South Wales is about in length and wide. During flooding the wetland is often over deep and can cover the dog-proof fence between the states. The area is flooded about once every ten years but is also prone to

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 area flooded in 2010 after a long drought and an estimated 35,000

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before s ...

nests were found within the swamp area. The

Narriearra Caryapundy Swamp National Park Narriearra Caryapundy Swamp National Park is a national park in northwest New South Wales. In June 2020 the Government of New South Wales acquired , or of private land for a new national park, when it purchased Narriearra station in the state’ ...

was established in 2021.

References

Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in New South Wales 1872 establishments in Australia Far West (New South Wales) {{FarWestNSW-geo-stub

Geography

Caryapundy Swamp

See also

References