Nilpena 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 west of Blinman and north of Hawker in 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 ...

and bounded by

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. Is ...

. It occupies an area of .

History

Thomas Elder Sir Thomas Elder, (5 August 1818 – 6 March 1897), was a Scottish-Australian pastoralist, highly successful businessman, philanthropist, politician, race-horse owner and breeder, and public figure. Amongst many other things, he is notable fo ...

and

Robert Barr Smith Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited). Early life and education Smi ...

acquired Nilpena in 1859. William James Browne owned the property in 1879 when he had the drover Giles take 12,000 sheep from Nilpena and overland them all the way to his new properties

Newcastle Waters Newcastle Waters is a town and locality off the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. The nearest petrol station and accommodation is found south at Elliott. The Newcastle Waters School draws most of its few students from the Marlinja hom ...

and Delamere Stations. Only 8000 sheep survived the journey, but it was still regarded as one of the most remarkable droving feats in Australian history. Browne appointed Roderick John Matheson to manage the property, along with

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 ...

. Matheson and John Lewis later bought Nilpena, with Matheson later buying out Lewis. In 1925, the Old Nilpena Station was placed on the market for auction. At this time it occupied and was stocked with over 3000

merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

sheep. It failed to reach the reserve price of £11,750. Matheson still owned the property in 1926, along with neighbouring Warrioota Station, which together occupied an area of . He was running about 15,000 sheep across the two properties. By 1944 the property was carrying 7000 sheep. In 1950, the station was run by the Nilpena Pastoral Company, whose managing director was a Mr Toll. In that year, the station received 18 months' worth of rain over three days, some . The property had over completely under water. Mr Toll estimated at the time that the property would have sufficient feed guaranteed for the next two years. Some time prior to the 1980s, the Fargher family acquired the property. Ross Fargher discovered a pristine Ediacaran

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

site in the 1980s that later became the focus of groundbreaking research, and an application being made for World Heritage listing to help protect the site.Rare fossil sites in the Flinders Ranges one step closer to gaining World Heritage status
''ABC News'', 2 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021. In 2009, the fossils and the property featured on the David Attenborough program ''First Life''.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Pastoral leases in South Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Flinders Ranges Far North (South Australia)

History

See also

References