Sheep station in the context of High country (New Zealand)


Sheep station in the context of High country (New Zealand)

⭐ Core Definition: Sheep station

A sheep station is a large property (station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, the main activity of which is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South Island. These properties may be thousands of square kilometres in size and run low stocking rates to be able to sustainably provide enough feed and water for the stock.

In Australia, the owner of a sheep station may be called a pastoralist, a grazier, or formerly a squatter (as in "Waltzing Matilda"), when their sheep grazing land was referred to as a sheep run.

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Sheep station in the context of Station (Australian agriculture)

In Australia and New Zealand, a station is a large landholding used for producing livestock, predominantly cattle or sheep, that needs an extensive range of grazing land. The owner of a station is called a pastoralist or a grazier, corresponding to the North American term "rancher".

Originally station referred to the homestead – the owner's house and associated outbuildings of a pastoral property, but it now generally refers to the whole holding. Stations in Australia are on Crown land pastoral leases, and may also be known more specifically as sheep stations or cattle stations, as most are stock-specific, dependent upon the region and rainfall.

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Sheep station in the context of Yalgoo, Western Australia

Yalgoo is a town in the Mid West region, 499 kilometres (310 mi) north-north-east of Perth, Western Australia and 118 kilometres (73 mi) east-north-east of Mullewa. Yalgoo is in the local government area of the Shire of Yalgoo.

Before it was settled as a town the Yalgoo area was used as grazing land for European settlers including the Morrissey and Broad families. Flocks of sheep were herded onto the rich pastures during the wet growing season and driven back to coastal properties for shearing before summer. Over time the graziers saw the value in the Yalgoo land and began to establish the first sheep stations.

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Sheep station in the context of Paynes Find, Western Australia

Paynes Find, also called Paynes, is a settlement approximately 430 kilometres (267 mi) northeast of Perth in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is reachable by the Great Northern Highway. It was originally founded after the discovery of a gold bearing quartz vein; a roadhouse, a battery, and a few other buildings remain today. Alongside its fluctuating gold activity the area is known for its annual everlasting bloom, and sheep stations.

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Sheep station in the context of Noonkanbah

Noonkanbah Station (or just Noonkanbah) is a pastoral lease, both a cattle and sheep station, on the Fitzroy River between Camballin and Fitzroy Crossing in the south central Kimberley region of Western Australia.

The station was pegged out in the 1880s and covered approximately 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi). It was the subject of an infamous land-rights dispute in August 1980 when state premier Sir Charles Court enforced an oil exploration project under police protection. The traditional owners now control around 1800 square kilometres of the land sacred to the Yungngora Community.

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Sheep station in the context of Erewhon

Erewhon: or, Over the Range (/ɛrɛhwɒn/) is a utopian novel by English writer Samuel Butler, first published in 1872, set in a fictional country discovered and explored by the protagonist. The book is a satire on Victorian society.

The first few chapters of the novel dealing with the discovery of Erewhon are based on Butler's own experiences in New Zealand, where, as a young man, he worked as a sheep farmer on Mesopotamia Station for four years (1860–1864), exploring parts of the interior of the South Island and writing about it in A First Year in Canterbury Settlement (1863).

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Sheep station in the context of Nundroo, South Australia

Nundroo is a small South Australian town, located approximately 1,014 kilometres (630 mi) west of Adelaide. It is a popular rest stop for travellers due to its location on the Eyre Highway.

The area was settled by sheep graziers in the 1860s. By the 1870s the Nundroo sheep station had been incorporated in the larger Yalata and Fowlers Bay sheep runs. In the following decade these vast runs were broken up as the original pastoral leases expired, opening the area up to such activities as grain farming.

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Sheep station in the context of Shearing shed

Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities.

In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds are vital to house the necessary shearing equipment, and to ensure that the shearers and /or crutchers have a ready supply of dry, empty sheep. The shed also provides space where the wool is classed and pressed into approved wool packs and stored to await transport to market.

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Sheep station in the context of Malcolm Fraser

John Malcolm Fraser (/ˈfrzər/; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian farmer and politician who was the 22nd prime minister of Australia, serving from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth longest-serving prime minister in Australian history.

Fraser was raised on his father's sheep stations, and after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in the Western District of Victoria. After an initial defeat in 1954, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 1955 federal election, as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Wannon. He was 25 at the time, making him one of the youngest people ever elected to parliament. He is the latest Prime Minister as of 2025 to represent a rural constituency. When Harold Holt became prime minister in 1966, Fraser was appointed Minister for the Army. After Holt's disappearance and replacement by John Gorton, Fraser became Minister for Education and Science (1968–1969) and then Minister for Defence (1969–1971). In 1971, Fraser resigned from cabinet and denounced Gorton as "unfit to hold the great office of prime minister"; this precipitated the replacement of Gorton with William McMahon. He subsequently returned to his old education and science portfolio.

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