Valley of Lagoons 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 ...

that currently 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 ...

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_ ...

. It is located approximately west of Trebonne and south of

Mount Garnet Mount Garnet is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Mount Garnet had a population of 430 people. Geography Various small communities populate the area around Mount Garnet. These include Tableland ...

. The property is located at the headwaters of the

Burdekin River The Burdekin River is a river located in North and Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain at Valley of Lagoons, part of the western slope of the Seaview Range, and flows into the Coral Sea at ...

, which flows through the property. The land is a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic plateau covered by an inland

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

that hosts several large off-channel lakes that provide a permanent aquatic habitat. The area is DIWA listed and is a valuable habitat for fish. 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 Gugu-Badhun people, who travelled widely through the area but made winter camp around the area to make the most of permanent water and abundant food.

Ludwig Leichhardt Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, (23 October 1813 – c. 1848) was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's dis ...

and his team were the first Europeans to explore the area, on 4 May 1845 on his expedition from

Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...

to Port Essington (now Darwin). Leichhardt was very impressed with the area, in regards to rearing livestock. The property was established in 1862 after the area was opened up by the government. A partnership formed between

Walter Jervoise Scott Walter Jervoise Scott (1835—1890) was a grazier in Queensland, Australia. He was a pioneer in the Valley of Lagoons. Early life Walter Jervoise Scott was born on 3 April 1835, the son of James Winter Scott and his wife Lucy (née Jervoise ...

, his brother Arthur,

George Elphinstone Dalrymple George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple (6 May 1826 – 22 January 1876) was a colonist, explorer, public servant and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. He founded the towns of Bowen and Cardwell, and pioneer ...

and

Robert Herbert Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, (12 June 1831 – 6 May 1905), was the first Premier of Queensland, Australia. At 28 years and 181 days of age, he was the youngest person ever to be elected premier of an Australian state. Early years Born ...

(then

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

) financed the acquisition of the leasehold. The partnership became Scott Bros, Dalrymple & Company with Dalrymple acting as manager. Walter Scott overlanded stock from the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

to the property shortly afterwards. The property was initially stocked with 25,000 sheep and cattle. Gunnawarra Station was originally an outlying part of Valley of Lagoons until it was taken from the leasehold and taken up as a separate entity in 1865. The property later acquired another from the Valley of Lagoons lease in 1880. In the same year a shepherd was speared by a group of Aboriginal people on the property and his hut stripped. By 1896 the station had been acquired by Messrs Fenwick and Rankin, who paid £12,000, a low price for the Scotts who had it stocked with over 20,000 head of cattle and 700 horses, and had invested an estimated £200,000 into the venture. James Simpson Love acquired the station in 1932; he had also acquired

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

and Gainsford Stations at about the same time. In 1963 Robert Lamont Atkinson acquired the property from the estate of James Love and the property was stocked mostly with

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

cattle. In 1982 a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

burnt out a large area and 600 cattle died from lack of feed. Alan Atkinson sold the property stocked with 4,500 head of

Droughtmaster The Droughtmaster is an Australian breed of beef cattle. It was developed from about 1915 in North Queensland by crossing zebuine cattle with cattle of British origin, principally the Beef Shorthorn. It was the first Australian taurindicine h ...

cattle in 2001. The property is able to carry up to 6,000 cattle and is renowned for being free of noxious weeds that plague other properties in the area.

References

{{Reflist Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in Queensland Far North Queensland

See also

References