Three Rivers or Three Rivers Station is a pastoral lease and

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 ...

located in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

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 ...

. Three Rivers and the neighbouring Bryah Station occupy an area of on the headwater of the

Gascoyne River The Gascoyne River is a river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. At , it is the longest river in Western Australia. Description The Gascoyne River comprises three branches in its upper reaches. Draining the Collier Range, the river ...

and primarily composed of grasslands. Three Rivers Station has a total area of . The longest river in Western Australia, the

, rises near the

Great Northern Highway Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost , it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the ...

on the property and then flows west to the coast. The station is situated approximately north of Meekatharra. It was established by the pastoralist Frederick Francis Burdett Wittenoom in 1884 when Wittenoom and B. J. Carlyon took up a large tract of land beyond Peak Hill and stocked it with cattle from Nookawarra Station. The station had a registered office on

St Georges Terrace St Georges Terrace (colloquially known as "The Terrace") is the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial road through the central business district. Its western e ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

that was established in 1920. The well known pastoralist, David Stewart, acquired a share in the station in 1921. The shearer, Harry Finlay, once shore 301 sheep in a day at the station in 1926. Wesley Hall Taylor was found dead at the station in 1928 with a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

wound to the head. It was later determined that he had accidentally inflicted the wound to himself. The station sold 1,200 sheep and 105 cattle, which were trucked out via Meekatharra in 1939. In 1940, Paul Hanson, a book-keeper from the station, collapsed and died in his car about from the station. The woman he was driving, who did not know the country or how to drive a car, was stranded at the spot for three days and nights. She was found in a distraught condition by the station manager, Mr J. Bowman. The area had good rains in 1948 with the station receiving over in five days. Road were closed, as were many

landing strip According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, o ...

s around the area. An escapee from Barton's Mill prison farm, John Henry Price was caught and arrested at the station by

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

R. Carr in 1954. The Forsyth family acquired Bryah Station in 1973 and expanded by acquiring Three Rivers in 1984. At this time the station was stocked with about 2,300 sheep and 250 cattle. The 1980s and 1990s were hard times with the area experiencing prolonged

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 ...

s and a boom in gold mining. The lessee of Three Rivers in 2012 was

Plutonic Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March ...

; Three Rivers is operating under the Crown Lease number CL168-1970 and has the Land Act number LA3114/926.

References

{{Stations of the Mid West Western Australia Homesteads in Western Australia Pastoral leases in Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia) Stations (Australian agriculture)

See also

References