Horseshoe Bend Station is a 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 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 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 ...

. The property occupies and area of and includes approximately frontage to the ephemeral

Finke River The Finke River, or ''Larapinta'' (Arrernte), is a river in central Australia, one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year and when this happens, its wate ...

with a string of semi-permanent waterholes. Situated upstream of

Crown Point Station Crown Point Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory. Description It is situated north west of Aputula and east of Kulgera. The ephemeral Finke River flows throu ...

, the homestead is on the Depot sandhills, south of the junction of the Finke and the

Hugh River Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

s. The property includes a desert block that has never been developed. The station was originally a staging post for the

Overland Telegraph Line The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

and the North–South Road, with a hotel and post office. The former

Central Australia Railway The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Aug ...

line passed about west of the homestead. Horseshoe Bend Hotel at Horseshoe Bend station, Northern Territory, mid-1920s

The area around the station was hit hard by drought in 1897, so much so that several of the surrounding properties were abandoned. The second owners of the property were the firm of Sargeant and Elliot, who also operated the hotel. They restocked the property with cattle; in 1908 they sent stock in 16 railway cattle cars from Oodnadatta to Adelaide and an unspecified number from Warrina. Mr Sargeant, described as "one of the oldest and best-known residents of the far north", died in 1912. Pastor

Carl Strehlow Carl Friedrich Theodor Strehlow (23 December 1871 – 20 October 1922) was an anthropologist, linguist and genealogist who served on two Lutheran missions in remote parts of Australia from May 1892 to October 1922. He was at Killalpaninna Missio ...

, the founder of

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort town since 1971. It is situated on the river ...

, died and was buried at the station. He arrived at Horseshoe Bend in 1922 after a buggy ride from Hermannsburg while en route to reach medical treatment in

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 ...

. By 2018, Horseshoe Bend Station was reported to be run by Viv Oldfield who also owned other properties nearby including

Clifton Hills Station Clifton Hills Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the far north of South Australia. Description It is situated approximately south of Birdsville and north west of Innamincka. The property encompasses part of th ...

Andado Station Andado Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory. The traditional lands of the Arrernte people before European settlement, the first pastoral lease was granted in ...

and

Pandie Pandie Station Pandie Pandie Station, most commonly known as Pandie Pandie, also often spelled as Pandi Pandi or Pandy Pandy, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in north east South Australia. It lies on the eastern edge of Karanguru territ ...

References

{{Reflist Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory Stations (Australian agriculture)

See also

References