Collinsville Station is a
pastoral lease that operates as 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 sout ...
in
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 property is situated approximately east of
Hallett and north of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. It is composed of flat and hilly terrain with areas 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
mallee scrub along with
bluebush plains.
Collinsville Station is best known as a
merino
The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...
stud, and historically, has been responsible for about one third of the genetics in the Australian sheep flock.
The property was originally established by John Collins in 1889, and later named Collinsville and established as a sheep stud in 1895 with ewes from Koonana. At his time the property occupied an area of .
The Handbury family had purchased the property in 1995 from receivers for 7 million. Collinsville grew 30% in size under the management of the Handburys. Following flooding in the creek in 2011 bones of
diprotodon
''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most speci ...
were found on the property. The fossils were taken to the South Australian Museum, who sent a team of scientists to the site where a full adult skeleton was found nearby.
The Handbury family put the station on the market to be auctioned in 2013, at which time the property was expected to fetch over 5 million. It was to be sold without the flock of 5,000 sheep it was stocked with at the time, which were relocated to the Handbury's
Arcoona
Arcoona or Arcoona Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station.
It is located about north east of Woomera in the outback of South Australia,
The station occupies an area of . The station was founded prior to 1880 and was own ...
property.
See also
*
List of ranches and stations
This is a list of ranches and sheep and cattle stations, organized by continent. Most of these are notable either for the large geographic area which they cover, or for their historical or cultural importance.
West Africa
* Obudu Cattle Ranch
* S ...
References
{{Reflist
Stations in South Australia
1889 establishments in Australia