Curtin Springs is a pastoral lease operating 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

Alice Springs region Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

of the

Northern Territory of Australia The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. Occupying an area of , the working

and roadhouse facility is located on the

Lasseter Highway Lasseter Highway is a fully sealed 244 kilometre highway in the Northern Territory of Australia. It connects Yulara, Kata Tjuta and Uluru east to the Stuart Highway at Erldunda. The highway is named after Lewis Hubert (Harold Bell) Lasseter, ...

, east of

Yulara Yulara is a town in the southern region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It lies as an unincorporated enclave within MacDonnell Region. At the , Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of . It is by road from World Heritage ...

and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The property shares a boundary with pastoral leases

Angas Downs Angas Downs Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is an Aboriginal Australian-owned pastoral lease, within the MacDonnell Shire area, south-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, east from Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park (Ayers Rock), south ...

to the north west, Lyndavale to the south east and Mulga Park to the south. It also abuts the

Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust The Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust (Katiti ALT) is a land trust for a block of land in the southwest of the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Petermann. It was created through the Katiti Land Claim in 1980. The trust's owne ...

to the west. The land was originally known as

Mount Conner Mount Conner, also known as Atila, Artilla, or Fool-uru, is a mountain located in the southwest corner of the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Lake Amadeus, in the locality of Petermann. It lies within the Curtin Springs cattle ...

Station in the 1930s when it was first taken up by Paddy DeConlay. Abraham Andrews leased Mt Conner Station, together with vacant crown land, which became known as Curtin Springs Station around 1956, after

John Curtin John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...

. Andrews originally considered the name Stalin Springs but his children felt it was inappropriate. Curtin Springs was built in 1943 and is now owned and operated by the Severin family who took over the pastoral lease in 1956. Peter Severin had previously worked as the head stockman on another cattle station and was gifted 1,400 head of cattle when he took over Curtin Springs for the value of the debts. Peter Severin, his wife and young son had a lonely existence with only six visitors in the first year. Going was tough with the family residing under a bough shed for the first three years. By 1957,

Len Tuit Leonard Roy Tuit or Len Tuit (1911–1976) was a pioneer in Central Australian road transport and tourism and is credited as being the first person to recognised the tourism potential of Uluru. Early life Tuit was born at Prospect, South Austra ...

had begun operating return trips from

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

Uluru Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially Gazette#Gazette as a verb, gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone geological formation, formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the ...

and was using Curtin Springs as a wayside to store fuel and water required for the return trip. This was the beginning of tourism in central Australia. Soon the Severins installed fuel tanks to service the bus tours that had commenced from Alice Springs to Uluru and provided food and drink to tourists on board. Later Severin acquired a

liquor licence A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the legal authority ...

and started a pub which later became part of the restaurant. The Curtin Springs liquor licence has not been without controversy. It has been opposed by many local Aboriginal elders and in particular the

Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council The Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council (NPY Women's Council, NPYWC) is a community-based community organisation formed in 1980 delivering services to the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara women in t ...

, because it is considered by them to have contributed to alcohol-related violence and other social problems in nearby Aboriginal communities such as

Mutitjulu Mutitjulu is an Aboriginal Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia located at the eastern end of Uluṟu (also known as Ayers Rock). It is named after a knee-shaped water-filled rock hole at the base of Uluṟu, and is loca ...

Imanpa Imanpa is a community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is seven kilometres north of the Lasseter Highway, the main road running between the Stuart Highway and Uluru (Ayers Rock). Imanpa lies 160 kilometres east of Uluru and 200 kilomet ...

, and Pukatja (Ernabella). In 1988, a number of elders took an action in nuisance against Severin in the

Supreme Court of the Northern Territory The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is the superior court for the Australian Territory of the Northern Territory. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. It is aro ...

, but were unsuccessful. The liquor license held by Curtin Springs is now subject to special restrictions prohibiting the supply of alcohol to any Aboriginals from the surrounding communities and anyone suspected of travelling to local communities. Water for the station and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

is supplied by pumping it from underground with diesel or solar pumps and windmills. Cattle watering points are located in yards so that they may be passively mustered through the use of water trapping.

Murray Grey The Murray Grey is an Australian breed of polled beef cattle. It originated between 1905 and 1917 in the upper Murray River valley, on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. It is similar in appearance to the Aberdeen Angus, from ...

cattle are increasingly being used to improve the herd’s temperament and quality. Murray Grey cattle are able to acclimatise to the desert heat better than some other breeds and their light coat colour also helps to reflect heat. Murray Grey's also have a smaller calf size so birthing is not as risky. Over the years the Severin family have diversified the business and now offer accommodation and other services to tourists. The station offers a campground with a range camping sites and other accommodation The station has a collection of birds in multiple aviaries around the homestead. All birds have been rescued after an injury or have been bread from captive animals so they are unable to be released into the wild. Local tours include parts of the Amadeus Salt Lake Chain and

, which is located on the private property of Curtin Springs Station. In 2011 the area was plagued by the largest

bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

that had been seen there since the 1970s, some of

Marqua Station Marqua Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about south of Alpurrurulam and north east of Alice Springs. The property shares a boundary with Tarlton Downs to t ...

was burnt out. More bushfires, started from

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

strikes ignited bushfires at the station in September 2012, the

had to be closed in the area due to the resulting

smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product ...

hazard. More fires started from dry storms in October 2012 and were left to burn in areas that were inaccessible and where high winds made containment too difficult. The station lost over of bush, nearly one quarter of its pasture land, as a result of the fires. The Severin family run conservative cattle numbers so they can best manage disasters such as fires and drought.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.curtinsprings.com Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory Stations (Australian agriculture)

See also

References

External links