Quinyambie or Quinyambie 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

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 ...

Description

It is located about north of

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 ...

and north east of

Blinman Blinman is a locality incorporating two towns located in the Australian state of South Australia within the Flinders Ranges about north of the state capital of Adelaide. It is very small but has the claim of being the highest surveyed town in S ...

in the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. Once owned by

Sidney Kidman Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoral farming, pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime. ...

, the property is the third largest station in South Australia. The unusual name is an

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 ...

word for

excreta Excretion is a process in which metabolic waste is eliminated from an organism. In vertebrates this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys, and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after lea ...

History

The station was established prior to 1886, and was owned in that year by Mr H. T. Whitty who was running sheep on the property, later moving 6,070 sheep from the property in 1887. A

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

employed at Quinyambie committed suicide by hanging himself after only one week on the job in 1888. The surrounding areas were denuded of feed following a rabbit plague in 1895, Quinyambie was spared as it was protected to the west by the border

rabbit proof fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from th ...

and to the north by of netting running at right angles to the border fence. The average rainfall on the leasehold for 1896 to 1899 was only per annum, prompting the Minister of lands to grant ''very liberal concessions'' to leaseholders in the area, particularly remission of rents.

acquired the property in 1916 when its size was estimated at . Although the 1916 season had been an excellent one, with tall grasses and full waterholes, the region suffered from

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 ...

for the next couple of years. In 1923 over 4,500 head of cattle were purchased from

Naryilco Naryilco Station also known as Naryilco Downs is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. Description It is located about north of Tibooburra and south east of Innanincka in the Channel Country of outback Queensland. It consists ...

for the purpose of restocking Quinyambie, it was thought to be one of the biggest cattle deals of the time. By 1924 the area was being 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, Quinyambie had been carrying flocks of up to 20,000 sheep but since the pest arrived numbers had dropped substantially. A fire destroyed the

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

in 1945. Following an outbreak of

pleuro-pneumonia Pleuropneumonia is inflammation of the lungs and pleura, pleurisy being the inflammation of the pleura alone. See also * Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia – a disease in cattle * Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia Contagious caprine pleurop ...

in the cattle at nearby Lake Frome Station, Quinyambie and other surrounding properties were placed under

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

in 1950. It was estimated that 2,000 cattle were infected. Quinyambie and the surrounding district suffered from a prolonged four year

from 1950 to 1954, which was broken by good falls late that year, with falling in one day. Quinyambie was placed on the market in June 2010 when it was stocked with only 1,430 cattle. The maximum herd size is 11,000 head with an average of 9,000 head. The station was advertised as having over of outstanding feed cover. The property was sold July 2010 to the Mutooroo Pastoral Company, run by the Morgan and Wells families, who own the adjoining Mulyungarie Station and other property in the region. Mulyungarie was running between 3,000 and 4,000 head of cattle and shares a boundary fence with Quinyambie. It was believed that the sale price was between $8 million and $10 million. The land occupying the extent of the Quinyambie pastoral lease was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Quinyambie'.

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in South Australia Far North (South Australia)