Woolundunga 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 ...

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 is situated approximately north west of Wilmington and south west 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 bo ...

at the foot 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 ...

. The leasehold has existed since 1859. The station was put up for auction in 1863 and sold to Charles Swinden. At that time it occupied an area of and was stocked with approximately 15,000 sheep, 500 cattle and 24 horses.

Walter Kingsmill Sir Walter Kingsmill (10 April 1864 – 15 January 1935) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1923 to 1935. He was President of the Senate from 1929 to 1932. Early life Kingsmill was born on 10 Ap ...

acquired the property in the 1860s. He also owned Mount Brown, Mount Serle and Mount Chambers Stations. By 1922 the station was in a terrible state, nearly devoid of vegetation, as a result of

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 ...

, overstocking and the effects of

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s. A new two-storey

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 ...

was built on the Station in 1950, a replica of one built in about 1892. In late 1950, scenes for the film ''

Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

'' were shot on Woolundunga, and the Station was temporarily renamed as ''Rooloora'' for American audiences of the film. In 2012 the entire area was ravaged by fire, killing 600 sheep and burning out .

References

{{Stations of South Australia Pastoral leases in South Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) 1859 establishments in Australia

See also

References