Wollogorang 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 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 ...

straddling the border the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and

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_ ...

Location

The property is situated approximately north west of Doomadgee and west of

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Burketown had a population of 238 people. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton on the Albert Riv ...

. 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 ...

overlooks Settlement Creek. It has approximately of frontage onto the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

. The property is bordered by the

Pungalina-Seven Emu Sanctuary Pungalina-Seven Emu Sanctuary is a 3060 km2 private protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) which purchased Pungalina Station in 2009, with some assistance from the ...

and

Calvert Hills Station Calvert Hills Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about south of Borroloola and east of Elliott. Other pastoral leases surround the property including Wollog ...

to the west, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north, the

border to the east and the Waanyi-Garawa Aboriginal Land Trust to the south.

Description

Several watercourses flow through the property including Branch Creek, Settlement Creek, Gold Creek and Running Creek. Wollogorang occupies an area of . and is able to carry more than 40,000 head of cattle. It contains the Wollogorang Important Bird Area.

History

The name ''Wollogorang'' in the local

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

peoples language means ''Happy running waters'', the name comes from Settlement Creek which runs through the property. The first Europeans to visit the area was the

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 ...

expedition from

Port Essington Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remote ...

in 1845. The lease for the landholding was established in 1881 by the Chisholm family who had come from Wollogorang House near

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

. Wollogarang/Wollogorang is a name associated with the Chisholms back to the 1820s, long before their settling of this property. Initially established and stocked in 1883 the property boasts the longest continuous occupation of any property in the Northern Territory as, unlike others, it has never been abandoned since it was first settled. The Anning family purchased the property in 1895 for £3000 after the station manager, Harry Shadforth, had been speared by Aborigines.

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

was discovered on the property in 1899. The Annings sold the property in about 1906. An American, A.L. Standberry of Arizona bought the station in 1966. However, his term was short, as long term owner Paul Zlotkowski first bought the property in the late 1960s. Zlotkowski sold it a few years later to businessman Bela Csidei. Later, after the businessman was arrested on drugs charges in 1978, Zlotkowski bought the property back from its liquidator. In 2007 a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

worker, Pablo Balading, arrived in Australia on a

457 visa In Australia, the 457 visa was the most common visa for Australian or overseas employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers to work temporarily in Australia. It was abolished on 18 March 2018 by the Turnbull government and replaced by another vis ...

to commence work on

Amungee Mungee Amungee Mungee Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Location It is situated about north east of Elliott and south west of Borroloola. The property surrounds the Bullwaddy Cons ...

Station. Instead he was taken to Wollogorang where he worked as a farm hand. Balading was harassed by his Australian workmates until he was killed when he fell from a vehicle speeding down a dirt road on the property. He died shortly afterwards and his family was left without any compensation or information on to what had caused his death. The company was fined for not providing a safe workplace for this incident three years later. The owner in 2006 was still Paul Zlotkowski who had placed it on the market for 40 million in 2008. However, he did not succeed in selling the station until 2015. The buyer in 2015 was Chinese businessman Xingfa Ma. In 2020 it was bought by the McMillan family of Cloncurry.

References

{{Reflist Pastoral leases in the Northern Territory Stations (Australian agriculture) 1881 establishments in Australia

Location

Description

History

See also

References