Uardry Station, most commonly known as Uardry, 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 has operated as both 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 ...

and 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 ...

in outback

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. It is situated about east of

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

and south west of

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Rid ...

and has frontage to the

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

. The country is composed of flat plains predominantly covered in

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. ...

. Uardry was initially established in 1840 by John Ray, with his partner Henry Angel arriving in 1844. The property was originally known as Wardry. Like most inland properties of the time it operated as a cattle station and Angel remained at the property until the 1860s. In 1864 the property was acquired by Thomas and William Wragge along with John and James Hearne for £1,000; they converted Uardry into a sheep station. The partnership remained at the property for 11 years. The name was also changed from Wardry to Uardry on the advice from a surveyor that Wardry was the name of another station further north. Uardry is an Aboriginal word meaning ''yellow box tree''. In 1875, the property was acquired by Charles Mills, Andrew Neilson and William Smith. At the time the property had an area of . Shortly afterwards Mills was fortunate enough to acquire a small flock of pure

Peppin Merino The Peppin Merino is a breed of Merino sheep raised for their wool, mostly in Australia. So important is the Peppin Merino that wool producers throughout Australia often classify their sheep simply as being either Peppin, or non-Peppin. Peppin ...

s, which he carefully bred to avoid outside blood to produce an excellent merino flock with "a bold combing wool of medium to strong quality". By the 1880s Mills was exhibiting at the Hay

agricultural show An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which selective breeding, breed ...

, in which they won 104 champions and 60 second prizes. As his partners died Mills acquired their shares of the enterprise and eventually was the sole owner of Uardry. By 1900 Mills passed on the running of the property to his oldest son, Ainslie, and later his third son, Nelson, took control. In 1937 the property was regarded as one of the most highly improved and best irrigated, with 38 ground tanks, 11 wells and 17 sub-artesian bores equipped with windmills and troughs to supply water to stock. The Black family held the property from 1973 to 2012, building the property into one of the most prestigious

merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

studs in Australia., expanding from one stud in 1973 to four in 2010. By the time it was sold Uardry had an annual turnover of 5 million with 350 active clients. The property was stocked with 25,000 sheep and 1,000 cattle. In 2012 Uardry was acquired by Tom Brinkworth, who paid 30 million for the for the property. Brinkworth intended to use the water rights that Uardry held on the Murrumbidgee to use the property for cropping, to grow corn and silage, and to drought proof the rest of his livestock holdings. The merino flock including all of the stud merino was to be sold from the property. In 2013 Brinkworth purchased 18,000 head of cattle for million from drought affected properties on the

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Terr ...

owned by the

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

. Brinkworth then had the cattle moved by

droving Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding. Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs—has a very long history in the Old World. An owner might entrust an agent to deli ...

them a distance of to Uardry using old stock routes. Many were agisted at Uradry with the remainder of the herd being dispersed through Brinkworth properties in New South Wales and Victoria.

References

{{Coord, 34.4174, S, 145.3033, E, type:landmark_region:AU-NSW, display=title Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in New South Wales 1840 establishments in Australia

See also

References