Wooltana Station most commonly known as Wooltana 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

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 ...

in outback

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 ...

. It lies on what were formerly the lands of the Pilatapa. It is situated about north east of

Blinman Blinman is a locality incorporating two towns located in the Australian state of South Australia within the Flinders Ranges about north of the state capital of Adelaide. It is very small but has the claim of being the highest surveyed town in S ...

and north west of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, on the plains between the northern end 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 inhabi ...

and

Lake Frome Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, long and wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total s ...

. The land is part of the traditional lands of the

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternativ ...

people. It has been recorded that the name 'Wooltana' is a corruption of an Aboriginal (presumably

) word, ooltulta'''. However, it is unclear what that word means. The station contains the Paralana Hot Springs, which issue from rich

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

uranium ore Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within the Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the more common elements in the Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than gold. It ...

. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen,

radon Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...

and helium bubble forth continuously. Because the Springs contain small amounts of uranium and radon, staying near the Springs for a prolonged period constitutes a

health hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would allow them, even just theoretically, to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probabi ...

. Living on the floor of the Springs is an

extremophile An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...

algal mat that survives the warm temperatures of 62 °C and high radioactivity. The Springs are listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

as a designated place of geological significance.

History

The station was initially established by the

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

John McTaggart who arrived in South Australia from Scotland in 1852. In 1856 McTaggart left the property near

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

where he was working and headed north with his brother-in-law John McCallum to search for suitable lands. Having found the plains of Wooltana, he returned to Mount Gambier and drove his flock of 1500 sheep, along with his wife and four children, via

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

to Wooltana. The McTaggarts became at this time the northernmost European settlers in South Australia, with the nearest station being

Arkaba Station Arkaba or Arkaba Station is a part-perpetual lease, part-freehold property located about north east of Hawker and south of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges in the state of South Australia, The station occupies an area of and was formerly used ...

some south. The area was struck by drought from 1863 to 1865 and McTaggart retired in 1882, leaving the property in the hands of his son, Lachlan McTaggart. The property was enlarged in 1907 when McTaggart acquired the neighbouring property, Paralana Station. Paralana Station occupied an area of , and when absorbed into Wooltana, the total area was brought to . A South Australian

shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

record was set at Wooltana in 1912 when shearer G. Denman shore 274 sheep in 8 hours and 40 minutes. The record was broken in 1927 by a shearer from

completing 277. The McTaggart family sold the property in 1918 to father and son, A.J. McBride and

Philip McBride Sir Philip Albert Martin McBride, (18 June 1892 – 14 July 1982) was an Australian politician. He was a United Australia Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for Grey from 1931 to 1937 and the Australian Senate from 1937 to ...

of Burra for £60,000. At the time the property comprised of leasehold and was stocked with 30,000 sheep as well as cattle, horses and camels. A.J. McBride died in 1928. Philip McBride would go on to become a leading member of the

Menzies Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...

government, and be knighted. In 1924 the area was affected by drought and two flocks totalling 9000 sheep were overlanded off the property to

Hawker Hawker or Hawkers may refer to: Places * Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Hawker, South Australia, a town * Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia * Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarct ...

to be trucked further south. Over 30,000 sheep were shorn at Wooltana in 1928. During the drought of 1948 over 10,000 sheep were sold off from Wooltana. Hundreds of sheep died from lack of feed in the area and the station's flock was reduced to half its size.

Wild dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of w ...

s became problematic during the course of the drought, feeding on weakened sheep. In 1950, Wooltana served as a base for the dropping of 90,000 wild dog baits, containing

strychnine Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eye ...

, to reduce the population of the pest. The area was struck by

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 ...

in 1954 with rains finally falling in December, Wooltana receiving over a two-day period. Also in 1954, John French, a 74-year-old station employee, was accidentally shot dead while kangaroo hunting with others on the station. In 1954, the station was still owned by the McBrides. In 1984, Robert Cameron bought Wooltana for $1.9 million, believed to be a South Australian record price at that time. The land occupying the extent of the Wooltana pastoral lease was gazetted as a locality by the Government of South Australia on 26 April 2013 under the name 'Wooltana '.

References

{{Stations of South Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in South Australia Flinders Ranges Far North (South Australia)

History

See also

References