Nockatunga Station, most commonly known as Nockatunga, 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 ...

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 stati ...

South West Queensland South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers . The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Countr ...

, Australia.

Description

Nockatunga is located about east of Innamincka and south west of

Quilpie Quilpie ( ) is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. In the , Quilpie had a population of 595 people. The town is the administrative centre of the Shire of Quilpie, Quilpie ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Situated in the

channel country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region ...

of outback Queensland the property includes frontage to the Wilson River. Occupying an area well over 2 million acres, which is approximately , almost the size as

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

with an area of , the property is able to carry 30,000 head of cattle on a good season. The station is owned by the Harris family, trading under Cleveland Agriculture. Harris acquired the property in 2018 from Consolidated Pastoral Company, prior the Hughes family owned Nockatunga for 120 years. Noccundra Pub is located on the station, 20km from the station complex. The country is described as open bendee opening onto well grassed downs studded with water worn stones and lightly timbered with stunted gidyah. The open plains contain cotton bush and

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

History

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 Kullili people of the

Garlali language Kalali, also written Kullili, Galali, Garlali, Kullilla and other variants, is a poorly attested Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of several geographically transitional "Karna– Mari fringe" languages that have not been convincingly ...

group, who have inhabited the area for thousands of years. The name of the property is thought to be derived from the Aboriginal words from the Theirila language ''Nock'' meaning water and ''tunga'' meaning smell. The station was established in 1866 when Alexander Munro took up the lease but it soon changed hands and was owned in 1869 by Patrick Drinan. The property was later put up for auction in 1872 and was advertised widely as a property of the "richest fattening quality", having frontage along the Wilson River, and occupying an area of . A herd of 6,500 cattle including 20 "well bred bulls" was included on the property that also claimed to have permanent waterholes "of sufficient depth to float the largest man'o'war", even during the severest drought. Herbert Bristow Hughes acquired the station at auction in August 1872 for the sum of £19,655. Explorers Hume, O'Hea and Thompson left Nockatunga to journey further down

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its t ...

and into the interior to search for the remains of the

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

expedition in December 1874 and quickly ran out of water in the intense heat. Thompson left the other two to find water and help, but when he returned both had died of

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

. The property was advertised for auction again in 1875. Nockatunga was now or 1,188,000 acres in size and carrying a herd of about 13,000 cattle and 100 horses. The property had many improvements since being acquired including a stone cottage, stone kitchen, men's hut, grass and mud store, yards, sheds and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop with of four wire fencing being installed. The auction was delayed then was unsuccessful as Hughes still owned the property in 1876 and beyond. Flooding occurred at the station in 1882 following heavy rains for 6 days with falling at nearby properties. The Wilson river rose leaving Nockatunga surrounded by water and parts being swept away. Many outbuildings constructed of

mudbrick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also bee ...

were washed away. The main buildings had the mortar dislodged from between the stones with flooding reaching a depth of , making the buildings unstable. At the peak of the floods a horse wagon was caulked up and used as a raft to take supplies to higher ground. Herbert Hughes died in 1892 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, where he had long resided. The property was managed by a

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

until at least 1904; after that time the property was being run by John Maddock Hughes. In 1901

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 ...

struck much of south west Queensland with thousands of cattle dying of thirst at many properties. Nockatunga lost an estimated 27,897 cattle from a herd of approximately 30,000. Virtually no grasses remained on the ground as feed for stock. This was followed by a rabbit plague in 1905 when the pest had moved northwards and bred to plague proportions in the channel country reducing available feed for cattle. By 1910 Nockatunga was the second largest station in Queensland, having an area of . The largest at this time was Sandringham Station in the north Gregory district having an area of . Following a period of drought, the area experienced heavy rains in 1926 when of rain fell over a few days. The Wilson River was the highest it had been in over 20 years and Cooper Creek was running at over wide. The

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 ...

population had increased and the property used 400 aborigines to cull the population. At Nockatunga over 713 dingos and their pups were slaughtered in the first six months of 1933. The manager of the property in 1935 was Lucas Hughes, one of the Hughes family and on the board of trustees of H. B. Hughes. According to him decent rains had not been had at Nockatunga since 1926. Hughes organised the construction of an airfield at Nockatunga in 1941 using 50 aborigines close to the homestead on a

gibber A desert pavement, also called reg (in the western Sahara), serir (eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and cobbl ...

plain. The working party took two days to clear the loose rocks and any brush along the landing strip. The rocks were then placed around the aerodrome and the station was accessible to the

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote an ...

. The station found itself isolated in 1947 following record flooding. Both the station and the township of Noccundra were completely cut off and had no mail from late December 1946 to late February 1947. An unfortunate stockman, George Dirkensen, fell into an open fire in January 1949 burning his hands, face and arms. He was over the river from the homestead but was unable to cross it and his cries were not noticed until the following morning. He was taken to

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

later that day by the

. The station had record rainfalls in 1949 when in the month of March a total of fell compared to an annual average of . The record of the most cattle sent to

Homebush Homebush is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Municipali ...

market by one owner, H.B. Hughes Estate, was set in 1951 when 654 cattle from Nockatunga arrived. The herd had been overlanded to Bourke and then trucked to Flemington.

Noccundra

The townsite of

Noccundra Noccundra is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Bulloo in South West Queensland, Australia. The town was previously known as Nocundra. Prior to 2020 the locality was previously known as Nockatunga. In the , the locality of Nockatunga (now ...

was established in 1882 and is located within the station boundaries, the only part that remains being the Noccundra Hotel. The licence for the hotel was first granted in 1886 and the hotel was built using locally quarried

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

which was brought to the site by

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

train. Besides being used for entertainment and accommodation the building serves as a medical and dental

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

for the

as required. The building was

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

listed in 1977.

References

{{Coord, 27.72183, S, 142.71159, E, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in Queensland South West Queensland 1866 establishments in Australia

Description

History

Noccundra

See also

References