Ivanhoe or Ivanhoe Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located just north of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Founded in 1893 by the Durack brothers, station is presently owned by the Consolidated Pastoral Company.[ when? ]
The station occupies an area of 2,954 square kilometres (1,141 sq mi) and follows the bank of the Ord River as it flows from Lake Argyle to Cambridge Gulf over a distance of 35 kilometres (22 mi). [1] The alluvial flats and black soil plains support rich stands of couch and buffel, which make good grazing feed.
The property lies on the land of the Gajirrawoong and Miriwung peoples, whose native title was recognised by the Federal Court of Australia in 2006. [2]
Ivanhoe and its neighbour Carlton Hills are able to support 50,000 head of cattle including 18,000 Brahman breeders. The station is able to turn off 9,000 steers per annum for live export to Asia and the Middle East.[ citation needed ]
The station was initially established by Patrick Durack and his brother Michael, who founded the station in 1893.[ citation needed ]
Kimberley Durack first experimented with growing cash crops in the fertile soil of the floodplains, which later led to the establishment of the Ord River Scheme. An experimental farm was established on the Ord in 1941 and then closed in 1945 when joint Commonwealth-State Research Station was completed at Ivanhoe. The station experimented with crops such as rice, linseed and cane sugar for the next 12 years. [3] Kununurra was built on land resumed from Ivanhoe Station during 1961, [4] as the town for the Ord River Irrigation Area, which started as the Ord River Project or Ord Scheme, with survey work starting in 1959.
Ivanhoe Crossing, [5] built in 1954 on a rocky outcrop to cross the Ord river, was featured in the film Australia when Lady Sarah Ashley is brought to Faraway Downs station. [6] The crossing is close to where the Duracks constructed the Ivanhoe Station homestead and the unusual sandstone formation named "City of Ruins".
The local Aboriginal peoples, the Miriuwung and Gajirrawoong, are the traditional owners of the area. The labour force of the station was often provided by these peoples, who lived and worked on the property often under terrible conditions. Aboriginal workers were often not paid wages and only received rations for their labour until the Pastoral Award was introduced in 1968. At Ivanhoe in 1961, 90 Aboriginal people were living in three huts. [7]
Kununurra is a town in far northern Western Australia located at the eastern extremity of the Kimberley approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) from the border with the Northern Territory. Kununurra was initiated to service the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. It is located on the traditional lands of the Miriwoong, an Aboriginal Australian people.
The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on the east by the Northern Territory.
The Ord River is a 651-kilometre long (405 mi) river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river's catchment covers 55,100 square kilometres (21,274 sq mi).
The Gibb River Road is a road in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Elizabeth Durack Clancy CMG, OBE was a Western Australian artist and writer.
The Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley is one of the four local government areas in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, covering an area of 117,514 square kilometres (45,372 sq mi) at Western Australia's northeastern corner. The Shire's seat of government was originally in Wyndham but now in the town of Kununurra, which is home to over half of the Shire's permanent population of around 7,000, while a council office is located at Wyndham.
Miriwoong, also written Miriuwung and Miriwung, is an Aboriginal Australian language which today has fewer than 20 fluent speakers, most of whom live in or near Kununurra in Western Australia. All of the fluent speakers are elderly and the Miriwoong language is considered to be critically endangered. However, younger generations tend to be familiar with a lot of Miriwoong vocabulary which they use when speaking Kimberley Kriol or Aboriginal English.
Patrick Durack was a pastoral pioneer in Western Australia.
Dunham River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Newry Station is a 2,500 square kilometres (965 sq mi) pastoral lease in the Northern Territory of Australia. It adjoins the Territory's border with Western Australia and is operated as a cattle station by the Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC).
The Ord River floodplain is the floodplain of the lower Ord River in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. It lies within the Victoria Bonaparte IBRA bioregion and contains river, seasonal creek, tidal mudflat and floodplain wetlands, with extensive stands of mangroves, that support saltwater crocodiles and many waterbirds. It is recognised as an internationally important wetland area, with 1,384 square kilometres (534 sq mi) of it designated on 7 June 1990 as Ramsar Site 477 under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Argyle Downs is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) south east of Kununurra in the Kimberley region near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. It is operated by the Consolidated Pastoral Company.
Home Valley or Home Valley Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station in Western Australia.
The Ord Irrigation Area Important Bird Area is an area of land used for irrigated agriculture along the Ord River in the vicinity of the town of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia. It has been identified by BirdLife International as a 220 km2 Important Bird Area (IBA) for its significance for birds, especially estrildid finches.
Four Mile is a small Aboriginal community, located proximate to Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley.
Carlton Hill Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Situated approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) to the north-west of Kununurra and 44 kilometres (27 mi) east of Wyndham, the station covers an area of 3,675 square kilometres (1,419 sq mi).
Mirima is a small Aboriginal community, located on the edge of the town of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Auvergne Station, often just referred to as Auvergne, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
The Miriwoong people, also written Miriwung and Miriuwung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia.
The Gajirrawoong people, also written Gadjerong, Gajerrong and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, most of whom now live in north-eastern Western Australia.