Moorarie Station 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 ...
currently operating as a
sheep station in the Murchison district of
Western Australia's
Mid West
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
region.
The property is situated approximately northwest of
Meekatharra and east of
Carnarvon. It is watered by the southern branch of the
Murchison River, the
Hope River and the
Yalgar River
The Yalgar River is a 185-kilometre-long tributary of the Murchison River, located in the Shire of Meekatharra in central Western Australia. It rises in the Glengarry Range 25 km southeast of Mooloogool Station homestead, about 80 kilomet ...
.
History
Moorarie was established by Edward William Butcher in 1875. Two years later Butcher sold the station to Dr James William Hope and his future father-in-law
John Henry Monger
John Henry Monger Jr (25 January 1831 – 23 December 1892) was a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1870 to 1875, and again from 1890 to 1892.
Monger was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1831; his father, John Henry ...
. Hope operated the station with a sequence of partners, initially Alexander Crawford, later
William Dalgety Moore
William Dalgety Moore (30 August 1835 – 22 April 1910) was a businessman in Fremantle, Western Australia, and also a pastoralist and politician.
Early life
Moore was born in the Swan River Colony in 1835, the eldest child of Samuel Moore and ...
, until 1891.
In 1886 the property occupied an area of , watered by two major rivers, several clay pans and numerous shallow wells. At the time there were 14,000 sheep, 250 cattle and 40 horses, with
Aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
labour for shepherding, shearing and
mustering
Muster may refer to:
Military terminology
* Muster (military), a process or event for the accounting for members in a military unit
* Muster list, list of the functions for team members
* A mustering, in military terminology, is a specialised for ...
.
[
William Kerr owned Moorarie from at least 1907 and held it until his death in 1936.
]
Floods
In 1884 the Murchison flooded out to a distance of from the river bank and the main homestead was washed away with about 3,000 ewes and lambs.
In April 1800 the Ord River was twelve miles wide near Moorarie, and the Murchison River was six miles wide in places.
In March 1926 the property was isolated for a week by floods. One shepherd spent five days stuck up a tree before being rescued by a passerby who swam his horse two miles to reach him. At least 400 sheep were lost to floodwaters but workers saved another 400 by swimming them to higher ground over a period of two days.
See also
* List of ranches and stations
References
{{Stations of the Mid West Western Australia
Pastoral leases in Western Australia
Stations (Australian agriculture)
Mid West (Western Australia)
1875 establishments in Australia