AUSTRALIAN STATIONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2612, 9 August 1928, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN STATIONS.

OF ENORMOUS AREA. FARMING IN THE NORTH. We in New Zealand realise the immensity of Australia in many respects, but there are some of us, perhaps, who are not aware of some of the cattle and sheep properties in that continent. To us a station of 150,000 acres appears extraordinarily large. Such a property shrinks to almost a paddock area in comparison with the cattle runß in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, and Northern Territory. It is necessary to adjust one’s ideas of relative size when contemplating some of these properties. In the west of Queensland there are cattle properties of 2000 square miles and more. Even thes properties slirink to diminutive proportions when compared with the vast cattle runs on the Barklay Tableland and other districts in the Northern Territory, wher a property of 5000 square miles is reckoned a small one. Brunette Down Station on the Barklay Tableland is 10,6000 sq. miles in extent, carrying anything up to 60,000 cattle, and is about the same area as Belgium. Alexandria,, a neighbouring property, is 12,000 square miles in area, twice the size of Yorkshire, the largest county in England. This station, vast as it is, is exceeded in area by the Victoria River Downs property, which has a total! area of 13,092 square miles and carries, in good seasons, up to 100,000 cattle. The natural waters—rivers, creeks and water holes—begin to give out about three months after cessation of the monsoon rains, which fall between February and March. In order to water stock in the drier season subartesian bores, whiph draw water at depths varying from 100 to 180 feel are resorted, to.

Isolated as they are, these vast stations in North Australia carry great stocks of food, clothing, and the necessary supplies for the use of the white and black employees. It is obvious that only wealthy individuals or companies can venture to operate in the far north.