Thread: Where am I? Competition.

I thought I had posted this a couple of days ago.

Cork Waterhole (Old Cork Station)?

Originally Posted by Xtreme

West Kuddaree Waterhole?
Can't see any link to the area's station name though.

Also in the right area but not quite the one we are looking for

Originally Posted by Narangga

I thought I had posted this a couple of days ago.

Cork Waterhole (Old Cork Station)?

Not Old Cork

Clue - Abandoned cattle station homestead edge of the Simpson - inner city suburb of Sydney

In that case, I guess it would have to be Annandale Waterhole - near Madigan's Camp 21.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

In that case, I guess it would have to be Annandale Waterhole - near Madigan's Camp 21.

Correct Roger. Where to now?

We did the Madigans in 2008 and remember there was a fair bit of water around in the waterholes towards the end of the trip.

A pic of the old homestead below. Would have had to have been a hardy cattleman to run stock out there. I read the following about this station. In 1911 the area was hit by a drought with Annandale receiving only 0.18 inches (5 mm) of rain in the first seven months of the year.[4] Between 1914 and 1916 the area was again struck by drought, 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 Diamantina Lakes, Durham Downs, Innamincka and Sandringham Stations. Suffering financially, Kidman sold the property in 1918, the property occupied an area of 2,574 square miles (6,667 km2) at this time.

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The sandridge in the background put me straight onto the area. The Annandale lease is now incorporated into the Adria Downs lease.

Here's a bit more history of the area plus present and past owners and managers -

Adria Downs Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the outback of Queensland.

It is situated approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Birdsville bordering the Simpson Desert National Park.[1] The Georgina River flows through the property in channels that are approximately 60 centimetres (24 in) deep but spread out on floodplains over 20 kilometres (12 mi) wide.[2] The river eventually runs into Lake Muncooney which is also situated within the lease.[3]

The property occupies and area of 8,750 square kilometres (3,378 sq mi)[4] and the current owner is David Brook and the current manager is Don Rayment. In 2012 the property was running 16,000 head of organic cattle.[1]

The property had been established in 1912 and in 1916 was owned by Macdonald and Alexander and managed by Clarence Miller.[5]

The Brook family have lived in the area since the 1880s when David's great grandparents were married in Birdsville. His grandfather managed Annandale Station for Sidney Kidman in the 1900s. His father, Bill Brook, worked on Cordillo Downs Station but in 1942 he acquired a 200 square miles (518 km2) block of waterless land west of Birdsville known as Adria Downs.[4]

The Brook family acquired other surrounding leases such as Annandale which were incorporated into the Adria Downs lease.[4]

David Brook entered the organic market in 1997 when he founded OBE Organic along with 32 other family farmers in the area, with a combined herd of approximately 90,000 head of cattle. His son also runs Cordillo Downs Station and his daughter, based in Hong Kong, runs the export side of the business

Let's move onto another type of more frequented 'waterhole' for the next one -