Glengyle Station most commonly known as Glengyle 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 operates 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 central west

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_ ...

Description

Glengyle is located north

Birdsville Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Birdsville had a population of 110 people. It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point acro ...

and south of

Boulia Boulia () is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the , Boulia had a population of 301 people. Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area ...

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 ...

. The property currently occupies an area of and has a carrying capacity of 8,500 head of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

. The property is currently owned by S.Kidman & Co. Ltd. It is the site of the monument, '' Sidney Kidman's Tree of Knowledge'', the

coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves ...

tree which Kidman camped under when contemplating the development of his pastoral empire. Glengyle and other leases in the channel country, he realised, would be important acquisitions to link his properties in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

to markets further south while still providing feed and water. The

Georgina River The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Georgin ...

and other tributaries such as Eyre Creek run through the middle of the property and mostly carries water down from the north during the wet season. Water can take as long as three months to travel across a paddock, called ''Bunkhole'', as it must fill two lakes. The lakes, named ''Koolya'' and ''Miria'', are each circular and about in area. Further downstream lies Lake Machattie which also usually fills then the floodwaters spread out across the maze of lignum lines black soil channels. About one third of the property is

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

which with adequate water is well vegetated by Cooper clover in winter and native sorghum in summer, another third is sandhill country with the remaining third made up of

gibber A desert pavement, also called reg (in the western Sahara), serir (eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and cobbl ...

plain that supports

Mitchell grass ''Astrebla'' is a small genus of xerophytic (adapted to survive in an environment with little liquid water) grasses found only in Australia. They are the dominant grass across much of the continent. They are commonly known as Mitchell grass aft ...

following summer rains.

History

The station was established in 1876 by Duncan Macgregor one of the first in the region along with Annandale, Kaliduwarry, and Sandringham Stations. Macgregor held on to the property for the next 20 years and also acquired nearby Cacory Station. William Buchanan acquired the station in 1907. He intended to stock up from his

Wave Hill Station Wave Hill Station, most commonly referred to as Wave Hill, is a pastoral lease in the Northern Territory operating as a cattle station. The property is best known as the scene of the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike by Indigenous Australian w ...

in the

, 4,000 head of cattle were immediately dispatched with Glengyle to be in good condition with plenty of feed and water. The property was sold the trustees of the Buchanan Estate in 1912 to

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. ...

. Between 1914 and 1916 the area was struck by

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 ...

, about 10,000 cattle died on the station during this time. Kidman lost over 75,000 head of stock on all of his properties through the channel country including Diamantina Lakes, Durham Downs, Innamincka and Sandringham Stations. Suffering financially, Kidman sold the property in 1918. The manager of the station, Albert Edwards, estimated the area of the holding in 1921 was with a total area of including outstations. The property was carrying 25,000 head of cattle and 1,000 horses. In 1929 a bore was sunk at Glengyle to a depth of before striking a good flow of artesian water The flow rate was measured at per day and cost Kidman A£6,000. Airmail delivery to remote properties in

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 n ...

South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland commenced in 1949. Glengyle along with other remote properties including Mungerannie, Clifton Hills, Mulka, Davenport Downs, Morney Plains, Mount Leonard, Durrie,

Cordillo Downs Cordillo Downs or Cordillo Downs Station is both a pastoral lease currently operating as a cattle station and a formal bounded locality in South Australia. It is located about north of Innamincka and south east of Birdsville. The name and bo ...

, Tanbar, Durham Downs,

Nappa Merrie Nappa Merrie Station, most commonly known as Nappa Merrie, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in central west Queensland, Australia. Description The property is located north east of Innamincka and south east of Birdsvi ...

, Lake Pure and

Naryilco Naryilco Station also known as Naryilco Downs is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. Description It is located about north of Tibooburra and south east of Innanincka in the Channel Country of outback Queensland. It consists ...

were also on the route. The

flooded in 1950 and again in 1953 following heavy rain events further north. The 1953 flood was higher at Glengyle compared to the 1950 event. The

Diamantina River The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia. The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Govern ...

was also in flood and the waters were expected to make it to

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...

. Glengyle is the end of the world's longest mail run that is about a round trip. The run starts at

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

and finishes at Glengyle an includes other properties such as Anna Creek and

Durrie Station Durrie Station most commonly referred to as Durrie is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Queensland. Description It is situated about east of Birdsville, Queensland, Birdsville and north of Innamincka, South Australia, In ...

s. The station, and much of the channel country, resembled an inland sea in March 2011 when flood waters flowed down from the north following

Cyclone Yasi Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi () was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that made landfall in northern Queensland, Australia in early 2011, causing major damage to the affected areas. Originating as a tropical low near Fiji on 26 Jan ...

. The floodwater were over wide down the creek channels and were over higher than the floods recorded in 2009, the highest seen before, that filled

. In 2013, the station was struck by drought again requiring water to be piped , at a cost of A$100,000, from a bore to the homestead once the water in the dams had run dry.

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in Queensland Central West Queensland 1876 establishments in Australia

Description

History

See also

References