Diamantina Lakes Station, most commonly known as Diamantina Lakes, was 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 once operated 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 ...

in central west

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_ ...

, and is now

Diamantina National Park Diamantina National Park is a national park in the Channel Country of South West Queensland, Australia, west of Brisbane. Like the Diamantina River that flows through it, it is named for Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, the firs ...

, a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

. Diamantina Lakes station was located about south east of

Boulia Boulia () is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the , Boulia had a population of 301 people. Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area ...

and north west of

Windorah Windorah is a town and a locality in the Shire of Barcoo, Queensland, Australia. It is one of only three towns in the Shire of Barcoo in Central West Queensland. In the , Windorah had a population of 115 people. Geography Located downstream fr ...

in the

Channel Country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region ...

. The area is a mix of landscapes including sand dunes, claypans,

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

mesas,

gibber A desert pavement, also called reg (in the western Sahara), serir (eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and cobbl ...

plains and river channels. The

Diamantina River The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia. The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Govern ...

traverses the area meaning the plains are able to support extensive grasslands and have near-permanent naturally deep waterholes, fed by seasonal rains and the

Great Artesian Basin The Great Artesian Basin (GAB), located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over , with measured water temperatures ranging from . The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of ...

. The

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the area are the

Maiawali The Maiawali, other wise known as the ''Mayuli,'' are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. Language The Maiawali spoke a dialect of Pitta Pitta. A number of brief records of their language were made by early European settl ...

and

Karuwali The Karuwali were an indigenous people of the state of Queensland. Country Norman Tindale estimated that the Karuwali's lands extended over some of territory. This took in the area about Farrars Creek near Connemara southwards to Beetoota, Had ...

peoples, who were well supported by the watercourses, ranges and plains in the area, and maintain a close spiritual connection with it.

History

The station was established in 1876 with a partnership between

John Arthur Macartney John Arthur Macartney (5 April 1834 - 10 June 1917) was an Irish-born Australian colonist, pastoralist, squatter and grazier who established a large number of frontier cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Early life John Art ...

and Hugh Louis Heber-Percy, who initially took up the lease. Heber-Percy stayed on at the property as a manager for many years. By 1881 the property had been put for auction by Macartney, Mayne and Percy and was stocked with 5,000 cattle. The station occupied an area of of open rolling downs and had double frontage on of the

as well as some frontage to

Mayne River Mayne may refer to: People * Andrew Mayne, magician and filmmaker * Brent Mayne (born 1968), American Baseball catcher * Chris Mayne (born 1988), professional Australian rules footballer * Clarice Mayne (1886–1966), British music hall and var ...

and Spring Creek.

Sidney Kidman Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoral farming, pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime. ...

acquired the property in 1908, paying A£25,000 for the station and all its stock. The property occupied an area of at the time and was purchased along with nearby Mount Poole Station and at the same time as the huge

Innamincka Station Innamincka Station, often called simply Innamincka, is a pastoral lease in the Australian state of South Australia. It operates as a cattle station. It is located about north-east of the small township of the same name. west of the Quee ...

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 ...

; Kidman sold off Victoria Downs in 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

Carlton Hill Station Carlton Hill Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Situated approximately to the north-west of Kununurra and east of Wyndham, the station covers an area of . The property li ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

to finance the deal. Between 1914 and 1916 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 ...

; about 10,000 cattle died on the station during this time. Kidman lost over 75,000 head of stock on all of his properties through the channel country, including Glengyle, Durham Downs, Innamincka and Sandringham Stations. Suffering financially, Kidman sold the property in 1918. George Hooper and E. A. Trenenny formed a partnership and acquired the station, then later sold it to the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

. The two later purchased

Davenport Downs Station Davenport Downs Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Queensland. Description It is situated about south east of Boulia and north east of Birdsville in the channel country of Queensland. Davenport Downs is the ...

but had to relinquish it for financial reasons. In 1927 the government owned the station and sold it unstocked to a company that was still in the process of being formed, for the reserve price of A£10,000. The

purchased the property in 1992 and subsequently gazetted the property, capable of holding up to 12,000 head of cattle, as the

. A number of

stock route A stock route, also known as travelling stock route (TSR), is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another in Australia. The stock routes across the country are colloquially ...

s still exist, and are regularly used in the park.

References

{{Stations of Sidney Kidman Stations (Australian agriculture) Pastoral leases in Queensland 1876 establishments in Australia Diamantina Lakes, Queensland

History

See also

References