Mount Hart Station, commonly referred to as Mount Hart, is a defunct

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 once operated 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 ...

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 ...

. The lands are part of a conservation area and the homestead operates as a wilderness lodge for tourists. It is situated about east of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

and north west of

Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...

, in the heart of the

Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges The Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly between 1879 and 2020, the King Leopold Ranges) are a range of hills in the western Kimberley region of Western Australia. There are two conservation parks within the ranges, the Wunaamin Conservation P ...

in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region. The property is accessed via the

Gibb River Road The Gibb River Road is a road in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Description The road is a former cattle route that stretches in an east-west direction almost through the Kimberley between the towns of Derby and the Kununurra an ...

and the homestead is situated on the banks of the

Barker River The Barker River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise north of Mount Matthew and then flow in a southerly direction through Barker Gorge before discharging into the Lennard River, of which ...

. Mount Hart shares a boundary with Charnley River Station. The property once occupied an area of .

Frank Hann Frank Hugh Hann (19 October 184521 August 1921) was an Australian pastoralist and explorer. Early life Hann was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hann. Fellow explorer William Hann was his older brother. They were born in Wiltshire, England a ...

was the first European to cross the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges, then named as King Leopold Ranges, in 1898 via an pass. The station was established prior to 1906 when Robert Brown was the manager. Brown was in partnership with Felix Edgar and William Chalmers, who together owned the station. In 1906 the homestead was broken into twice, and the contents stolen. Brown made a report to the local police, who tracked the

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

responsible to their camp along the Charnley River and killed a man who tried to spear them. Another nine men were arrested and two females were detained, and all the equipment, including a double-barrelled shotgun, was recovered. Relationships between the settlers and the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

further deteriorated in 1910 when Brown sent an urgent message to Edgar that a group of 100 had taken possession of the station and the cattle had gone. Chalmers was found fatally shot at Mount Hart in 1933. He had been ill for some time. The station was abandoned in 1934, and the lease was next take up by "Stumpy" Fraser in 1935. The property was soon 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 ...

, forcing Fraser to move the homestead closer to permanent water. In 1946, following another drought, Fraser moved the homestead again, to its present location. He abandoned the property in 1957. The property continued to operate as a cattle station until it was declassified as a viable pastoral lease in 1987. It eventually became part of the

Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges Conservation Park The Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly between 1879 and 2020, the King Leopold Ranges) are a range of hills in the western Kimberley region of Western Australia. There are two conservation parks within the ranges, the Wunaamin Conservation P ...

when it was gazetted in 2000. Lounge Area of Mount Hart Homestead ted

Taffy Abotts managed the property from 1991 to 2011 during which time he renovated the homestead and built various other buildings. He estimated the value of the improvements as being 1.9 million. The Department of Environment and Conservation asked Abotts to leave the property, offering 200,000 for him to do so. Abotts was later paid an undisclosed amount and left voluntarily. The

APT Apt. is an abbreviation for apartment. Apt may also refer to: Places * Apt Cathedral, a former cathedral, and national monument of France, in the town of Apt in Provence * Apt, Vaucluse, a commune of the Vaucluse département of France * A ...

company Kimberley Wilderness Adventures was selected by the state government to operate the wilderness lodge in late 2011. The planning and preparation of the site was part of the

Royalties for Regions Royalties for Regions is a political policy formulated by the National Party in 2008 which involves the redirection of Western Australian state government spending from the major population centres, particularly Perth, into the rural areas of the ...

scheme.

References

{{Stations of the Kimberley Western Australia Stations in the Kimberley (Western Australia)

See also

References