Inverway 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 stat ...
in the
Northern Territory
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 ...
of
Australia.
Location
It is situated approximately north west of
Lajamanu
Lajamanu, formerly known as Hooker Creek Native Settlement or just Hooker Creek, is a small town of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located around from Katherine and approximately from Darwin. At the 2016 Australian census, Lajama ...
and south west of
Daguragu in the
Victoria River district. The property was originally much larger until it was carved up into Inverway,
Bunda and
Riveren
Riveren Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Situated approximately north west of Lajamanu and south west of Daguragu in the Victoria River district, the property was origina ...
Stations.
[ Inverway is bounded by Bunda to the west, Riveren to the east, Limbunya to the north and Birrindudu Station to the south.
]
Description
The property currently occupies an area of and is stocked with a herd of 17,000 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 ma ...
. The country is a mix of black soil plains covered with pastures of 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 ...
, Queensland blue and silky brown top grasses. The red dirt country supports stands of spinifex.
History
The area was originally scouted by Nat Buchanan and his son Gordon. The three Farquharson brothers, Archie, Harry and Hugh, acquired the lease to the holding in 1894.overlanding
Overlanding is self-reliant overland travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principal goal. Typically, but not exclusively, it is accomplished with mechanized off-road capable transport (from bicycles to trucks) where the principal ...
cattle from Inverell
Inverell is a large town in northern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Macintyre River, close to the Queensland border. It is also the centre of Inverell Shire. Inverell is located on the Gwydir Highway on the western slopes of the ...
. By 1905 the property 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 ...
and in 1909 the dry had still not lifted. Cool weather helped the men make the decision to drove the cattle over the dry Murranji Track despite there being no water along the way. Over 1,000 cattle were taken and only five were lost on the journey that took five days.[
The Farquharsons remained at the property until the 1940s. Archie was the sole remaining owner in 1946 when he sold a large portion of the station. He remained on the property living in the log homestead he had built with his brothers until his death in 1950. He is buried at Inverway along with one of his brothers.
The Westaway family bought the property in 1956 and placed it on the market in 2007. The Underwood family acquired the property later the same year at auction for 17.65 million.
Mick and Georgia Underwood sold the property in a private sale along with ]Riveren
Riveren Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Situated approximately north west of Lajamanu and south west of Daguragu in the Victoria River district, the property was origina ...
Station in 2013 to the Indonesian company, Japfa Santori[ for an estimated 35 million.][ ] The decision came following live export ban on livestock by the Gillard government in 2011.
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
Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory
Stations (Australian agriculture)