Kirkalocka is a former

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 the Mid West region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Location

It is located 55 kilometres (35 mi) south-south-west of

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

, 420 kilometres (260 mi) north east of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. The station covers approximately 100 square kilometres (25,000

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s) of

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

land.

History

A road was cleared from

to Kirkalocka Station in 1911. At a meeting of the Mt Magnet Pastoralists subcommittee in 1944 at Kirkalocka they were given a demonstration of

mulesing Mulesing is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection flystrike (myiasis). The wool around the buttocks can retain feces and urine, which attracts flies. The scar t ...

and the docking of lambs tails to prevent fly strike. In 1949 Grazier Fred Broad recommend the Manchester method in preference to mulesing, having used it for 3 years on 1200 ewes at Kirkalocka with a 99% success rate and attributing the 1% failure to poor workmanship. Kirkalocka is now predominantly a tourism based operation and offers caravan stop-over facilities and accommodation in shearers' quarters and the old homestead. In 2000, three previously undescribed species of shrub were collected on the station, and subsequently published as ''

Banksia rosserae ''Banksia rosserae'' is a recently described species of ''Banksia''. Endemic to inland Western Australia, it is the only ''Banksia'' species to occur solely within the arid zone. Description ''B. rosserae'' grows as a multi-stemmed shrub ...

'', '' Grevillea squiresiae'' and '' Grevillea kirkalocka''. The last of these is named after Kirkalocka. Due to proximity to mining areas, the station area was reviewed for its geological potential in 2000.

Badimaya The Badimaya people (also written Badimia) are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mid West region of Western Australia. Country Traditional Badimaya country was calculated by Norman Tindale to encompass approximately , and is bordered by t ...

elder Ollie George grew up on the station. A dictionary preserving the Badimaya language was unveiled at Kirkalocka station in 2014. The current lessees are Jared and Blair Ridley; Kirkalocka is operating under the Crown Lease number CL440-1966 and has the Land Act number LA3114/636.

Notes

References

*
Kirkalocka
in the

Gazetteer of Australia The Gazetteer of Australia is an index or dictionary of the location and spelling of geographical names across Australia. Geographic names include towns, suburbs and roads, plus geographical features such as hills, rivers, and lakes. The index is ...

br>online
Pastoral leases in Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia) Stations (Australian agriculture) {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub

Location

History

See also

Notes

References