Warrioota 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

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 about south west of Leigh Creek and north west 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 ...

. The property shares a boundary with

Nilpena Nilpena Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station in South Australia. It is situated approximately west of Blinman and north of Hawker in the Flinders Ranges and bounded by Lake Torrens. It occupies an area of . Hist ...

Station and abuts

Lake Torrens Lake Torrens (Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf. Isl ...

. The landscape consists of undulating

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

and

sandhill A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and be ...

country interspersed with grassed flats. In 1913 the property was owned by W. L. Whyte and Peter Whyte who both died the same year. The executors of their wills sold the property to Walter Henry McFarlane. McFarlane placedit up for auction in 1920 when it was stocked with about 2,000 sheep and 270 cattle. T. H. Pearse of the Gums Station bought Warrioota for £10,000. Pearse appointed William Place as the station manager later the same year. The area had been going through a dry spell for the past few years but in 1921 the rains came with falling in a single day. Pearse reported that abundant feed was available for stock by April of that year. Grant Matheson purchased Warrioota from Pearse in 1923 for £11,000. Matheson also owned the adjoining property

station. Warrioota occupied an area of and was stocked with 1,800 sheep and 300 cattle.

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 had become troublesome so Matheson intended to construct many miles of vermin-proof fencing on the northern boundary. Matheson still owned the property in 1926 along with neighbouring

Station which together occupied an area of . He was running about 15,000 sheep across the two properties. The Nilpena Pastoral Company put both Nilpena and Warrioota up for auction in 1947 as one lot. The properties had a total area of . The properties were divided into 14 sheep paddocks and watered by six

wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

and three bores. Both the stone homestead at Nilpena and the weatherboard homestead at Warrioota were included in the sale.

References

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

See also

References