Maroonah Station, often referred to as Maroonah, is a pastoral lease that operates as a

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 ...

. It is located about east of Coral Bay and south of Onslow in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

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 ...

. Maroonah occupies an area of and shares boundaries with Towera, Lyndon, Mangaroon, Ullawarra, Edmund and

Glenflorrie Glenflorrie Station, also known as Glen Florrie Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. It is located about south of Pannawonica and west of Paraburdoo in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and occupies an are ...

Stations as well as the Barlee Range Wildlife Sanctuary. 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 ...

of the area are the

Tharrkari The Tharrkari, also referred to as the Targari, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Language The Tharrkari spoke one of four dialects of Mantharta, the other members of the dialect continuum being t ...

, who currently lease and manage neighbouring Ullawarra station. Maroonah was established in 1893 by J. H. Mansfield and began trading in wool the same year. Mansfield had previously managed Karratha and

Middalya Station Middalya Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station in Western Australia. It was located south east of Coral Bay and north east of Denham in the Gascoyne region. The Minilya River runs through the property. The tradition ...

s before acquiring Maroonah. Following the death of Mansfield in 1907 the property was being run his wife, Annie Mansfield, and the manager of the property John Griffin. The station was flooded in 1909 following severe weather that washed away miles of fencing. Later the same year

shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

produced a clip of over 150 bales of wool from the flock of 10,000 sheep. Annie Mansfield died in 1911 and the partnership of Mansfield and Griffin was dissolved in 1912, with Maroonah being put up for auction later the same year. At the time it occupied an area of subdivided into nine paddocks with of fencing. It was watered by nine wells and stocked with 10,200 sheep and 70 horses. The purchaser was W. S. Finey, who hired G. F. Egan to be the station's manager. When Finey arrived he found the property in the grip of a

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 plagued by

dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

s. The stock was mustered and it was found that only 2,000 sheep were present. Frank Craig, the owner of Portree and Yalbalgo Stations, acquired Maroonah in October 1913. The Craig family remained associated with the property, with Gordon Craig dying in 1951. In 2009 the

of the area, the Thudgari people, were awarded native title of some in the area, including Maroonah,

and Mangaroon Stations. The land use agreement allows the Thudgari access to their traditional lands to hunt, gather and camp. Maroonah, Mangaroon and Diamond Downs were on the market in 2018; the properties had a combined area of and were carrying about 5,000 head of

droughtmaster The Droughtmaster is an Australian breed of beef cattle. It was developed from about 1915 in North Queensland by crossing zebuine cattle with cattle of British origin, principally the Beef Shorthorn. It was the first Australian taurindicine h ...

cattle. The properties were listed at 7 million.

References

{{Stations of the Pilbara Western Australia Pastoral leases in Western Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Pilbara 1893 establishments in Australia

See also

References