Wirrealpa Station is a pastoral lease that operates as 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

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 stat ...

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 ...

. The property is situated approximately south east of Leigh Creek and north east of

Quorn Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products, or the company that makes them. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 14 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin. Quorn is sold as b ...

, on the eastern side of the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabit ...

. It occupies an area of and has been owned by the same family for five generations. The lease dates back to the early 1850s, with the station being established in 1856, John Chambers owned the station in the late 1850s and eventually sold it to

Philip Levi Philip Levi (1 February 1822 – 13 May 1898) was an early settler and pastoralist of South Australia. Born at Brixton Hill, Surrey, England, Levi arrived in South Australia at the age of sixteen, aboard the '' Eden'' in 1838 with his parent ...

. Levi had sustained heavy losses through the drought in the 1860s and Wirrealpa was acquired by John Howard Angus in 1871. The shearers quarters were built in 1860, today they are used as accommodation for tourists visiting the area. In 1953 the property occupied an area of and was placed on the market to be sold as one lot or split into four blocks. It was stocked with 16,000 sheep at the time that were not included in the deal. F. H. Fargher and sons acquired a portion of Wirrelapa in 1953, including the eight bedroom stone homestead situated on the area. They bought the property from the Mundi Mundi Pastoral Company at a cost of £65,688. The Fargher family still owned the property in 2014 even after suffering through a twenty-year drought from 1990 to 2010. The land occupying the extent of the Wirrealpa pastoral lease was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Wirrealpa'.

References

{{Reflist Pastoral leases in South Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) 1856 establishments in Australia Far North (South Australia)

See also

References