Station (Australian Agriculture)
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In Australia, a station is a large landholding used for producing
livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
, predominantly
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
or
sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...
, that needs an extensive range of
grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...
land. The owner of a station is called a pastoralist or a grazier, corresponding to the North American term " rancher". Originally ''station'' referred to 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 ...
– the owner's house and associated outbuildings of a pastoral property, but it now generally refers to the whole holding. Stations in Australia are on
Crown land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
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 ...
s, and may also be known more specifically as
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 ...
s or
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 ...
s, as most are stock-specific, dependent upon the region and rainfall. If they are very large, they may also have a subsidiary homestead, known as an outstation.


Sizes

Sheep and cattle stations can be thousands of square kilometres in area, with the nearest neighbour being hundreds of kilometres away.
Anna Creek Station Anna Creek Station is the world's largest working cattle station. It is located in the Australian state of South Australia. Description Anna Creek Station has an area of which is slightly larger than Israel. It is larger than its nearest r ...
in
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 ...
is the world's largest working
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 ...
. It is roughly ; much larger than the runner-up, Clifton Hills, another
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 ...
n cattle station spanning ; and substantially larger than America's biggest
ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...
(
King Ranch King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States. At some it is larger than the state of Rhode Island and country of Luxembourg. It is mainly a cattle ranch, but also produced the Triple Crown winning racehorse Assault. The ranch is loc ...
), which is only . King Ranch is approx 13% of the size of Anna Creek Station.


Structure

A station typically has a
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 ...
where the property owner or the manager lives. Nearby cottages or staff quarters provide housing for the employees. Storage sheds and cattle yards are also sited near the homestead. Other structures depend on the size and location of the station. Isolated stations will have a mechanic's workshop, schoolroom, a small general store to supply essentials, and possibly an entertainment or bar area for the owners and staff. Water may be supplied from a river, bores or
dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...
, in conjunction with rainwater tanks. Nowadays, if rural mains power is not connected, electricity is typically provided by a generator, although
solar electricity Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...
systems have become increasingly common.


Outstations

Historically, an outstation was a subsidiary homestead or other dwelling on Australian
sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...
or cattle stations that was more than a day’s return travel from the main homestead. (Book detail
here
)
Although the term later came to be more commonly used to describe a specific type of Aboriginal settlement, also known as a homeland community, it is still used on cattle and sheep stations today, for example the Sturt Creek Outstation of the
Ruby Plains Station Ruby Plains Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about south of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is situated along the Tanami Track and is used as a stopping place along the Canning Stock Route ...
in
The Kimberley The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...
, and Rawlinna sheep station, Australia’s largest operating sheep station.


Facilities

Because of the extended distances, there is a
School of the Air School of the Air is a generic term for correspondence schools catering for the primary and early secondary education of children in remote and outback Australia where some or all classes were historically conducted by radio, although this is n ...
so that children can attend classes from their homes, originally using
pedal-powered radio Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power (rate of work per time) of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other ...
s to communicate with the teachers, developed by South Australian engineer and inventor
Alfred Traeger Alfred Hermann Traeger (2 August 1895 – 31 July 1980), known as Alf Traeger, was an Australian engineer and inventor, chiefly known for the development of the pedal radio. Early life and education Traeger was born at Glenlee, near Dimboola ...
in 1929. The larger stations have their own school and teacher to educate the children on the station until at least they commence
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
. Large isolated stations have their own stores to supply workers with their needs. Medical assistance is given by 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 ...
(also originally using Traeger's pedal radio technology), where medical staff such as doctors and nurses can treat patients at their homes, or
airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distanc ...
emergency and seriously ill patients to hospitals at the nearest towns. The
Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service The Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service is a helicopter surf lifesaving service that operates in Australia. Founded in 1973 by Surf Life Saving Australia, a not-for-profit organisation, the service has carried out more than 80,000 fli ...
and
RAC RAC or Rac may refer to: Organizations * Radio Amateurs of Canada * RATCH-Australia Corporation, electricity generator * Refugee Action Collective (Victoria), Melbourne, Australia * Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, US * Rent-A-Center, ...
rescue
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
and its trained medical crews also respond quickly to emergencies threatening the life, health and safety of people caused through medical emergency, illness, natural disaster, accidents or mishap.


Personnel

A station hand is an employee, who is involved in routine duties on a station and this may also involve caring for livestock. Some stations are in remote areas that are not easy to access, limiting their population greatly. Accommodation for couples and families may be limited. An important example is the jackaroo (male) or jillaroo (female), a young person who works on a station for several years in a form of apprenticeship, in order to become an overseer or rural property manager.Delbridge, Arthur, ''The Macquarie Dictionary'', 2nd ed., p. 937, Macquarie Library, North Ryde, 1991Chisholm, Alec H. (ed.), The Australian Encyclopaedia, "Jackeroo", Halstead Press, Sydney, 1963
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 ...
have played a big part in the northern cattle industry where they were and still are competent stockmen on the cattle stations. Nowadays staff on these stations may work in the homestead and in stock camps. Stockmen, especially ringers, may be seasonal employees. Others include boremen, managers,
mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and r ...
s, machinery operators (including grader drivers), station and camp cooks, teachers,
overseer Overseer may refer to: Professions * Supervisor or superintendent; one who keeps watch over and directs the work of others *Plantation overseer, often in the context of forced labor or slavery *Overseer of the poor, an official who administered re ...
s and bookkeepers.
Veterinary surgeon Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics (bones, joints, muscles), soft tissue surgery (skin, body cavities, cardiovascular system, GI/urogenital/ ...
s also fly to some of the more distant cattle and sheep stations.


Popular culture

Jeannie Gunn Jeannie Gunn (pen name, Mrs Aeneas Gunn) (5 June 18709 June 1961) was an Australian novelist, teacher and Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) volunteer. Life Jeannie Taylor was born in Carlton, Melbourne, the last of five childre ...
arrived at
Elsey Station Elsey Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about east of Mataranka, Northern Territory, Mataranka and north of Larrimah, Northern Territory, Larrimah. The R ...
in 1902, leaving after her husband died, and in 1908 wrote the book ''
We of the Never Never ''We of the Never Never'' is an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn first published in 1908. Although published as a novel, it is an account of the author's experiences in 1902 at Elsey Station near Mataranka, Northern Territory in which she ...
'' based on her time on the property. Elsey also featured in the 1946 film '' The Overlanders''. The crew set up camp on the property for a month, and the river crossing sequence was shot at the
Roper River The Roper River is a large perennial river located in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Location and features Formed by the confluence of the Waterhouse River and Roper Creek, the Roper River rises east of Mataranka ...
. Writer
Arthur Upfield Arthur William Upfield (1 September 1890 – 12 February 1964) was an English-Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race ...
spent many years working in the outback and on stations in many different jobs; he later described station life of the early 20th century in his novels. The long-running television drama ''
McLeod's Daughters ''McLeod's Daughters'' is an Australian drama television series created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton for the Nine Network, which aired from 8 August 2001, to 31 January 2009, lasting eight seasons. It stars Lisa Chappell and Brid ...
'' (20012009) is set on an Australian cattle station. The 2008 film ''
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
'' was set on the fictional station Faraway Downs; the movie was filmed on
Home Valley Station Home Valley or Home Valley Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station in Western Australia. Location It is located along the Gibb River Road west of Kununurra in the Kimberley region. History The pastoral lease is currently owned by th ...
. The 2016
videogame Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedb ...
''
Sid Meier's Civilization VI ''Sid Meier's Civilization VI'' is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games, and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. The mobile port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the ''Civiliz ...
'' introduces Australia into the series, with one its abilities being a unique tile improvement called the Outback Station.


See also

* *
List of the largest stations in Australia This is a list of the largest stations in Australia, which includes stations with an area in excess of . All of the largest pastoral leases are located in the states of South Australia (SA), Queensland (QLD) and Western Australia (WA); or in the ...
* Outstation *
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 ...
* Rangeland#Australia *
Station (New Zealand agriculture) A station or run, in the context of New Zealand agriculture, is a large farm dedicated to the grazing of sheep and cattle. The use of the word for the farm or farm buildings date back to the mid-nineteenth century. The owner of a station is call ...


References


External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Sheep and cattle stations in Australia Australian English Crown land in Australia Livestock in Australia